Predators: The Avatar the Last Airbender Version!
by Nameless dude
Summary: After finding themselves mysteriously transported from the Four Nations to a strange and tropical terrain, eight human "predators" find themselves trapped in a deadly, intergalactic hunt that blurs the line between man and monster.
1. Part 1

PREDATORS: THE AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VERSION!

Part 1

Aang gave a conscious moan as he slowly broke away from his deep sleep. His natural body senses, alerted by odd gusts of wind flittering across his face and an uncommon weightless feeling to his body, had awakened the young airbender from his earlier slumber. Responsively, Aang gradually opened his heavy eyelids in order to gain a visual sense of the strange phenomenon occurring across his body. What he observed, though, shocked him to the core and effectively removed all residual traces of sleep from his widening eyes: he was alone, the topography of the earth was thousands of feet below him and he was freefalling at an incredibly rapid pace through the troposphere of the sky.

"AHHH! APPA, YIP YIP!" Aang screamed, at the top of his lungs, as the strong gales of wind, caused by the turbulence of his plummet, tossed and turned his body, haplessly, in the troposphere. Much to Aang's confusion and fear, however, his beloved bison never came. He decided to give it a second shot, "APPAAA! YIP YIP!" He cried out, even stronger, while turning his head frantically in all directions of the sky to try and gain a sight of the flying bison. Appa was still nowhere to be found. Astounded, scared and drawing nearer to the surface of the earth, Aang decided to make a rash attempt to airbend in order to slow down his momentum. The attempt failed, unfortunately, as the turbulence proved too strong for Aang to effectively manipulate his maiden element.

"KATARA! SOKKA! TOPH!" Aang exclaimed in an irrational desperation for any kind of help he could receive, despite the clear absence of his friends and his understanding that they would be of little use without Appa anyway. In the middle of his panic, however, Aang managed to realize that he still had one last resort: his trusty staff-glider. Turning his attention to his body, in order to recruit the last ditch trump card from within his garment, Aang noticed something new on his person. Wrapped around his chest area was some sort of black, bulky, vest-like apparatus that held a blinking beacon of red light in the middle of its front surface. Although curious as to how it got on his body, anxiety quickly dispelled the former emotion by making Aang recognize that the apparatus stood in the way of him reaching his glider. Frantically clawing and pulling at the tough material of the mysterious apparatus in order to somehow remove it from his body, Aang found his efforts to be unsuccessful. In a final burst of fear, frustration and confusion over his impending doom, Aang let out a loud cry, "NOOO!"

It was at that moment that something unexpected happened. In what sounded like a muffled mass of thunder to the startled airbender, a giant, bag-like, white fabric suddenly emerged from the apparatus on Aang's body and opened up, like a roof, high above his head. The various chords, anchoring the bag to the now deflated apparatus on the Avatar's body, caused him to grunt from the resulting jerk that came as the bag filled with the rushing air and suddenly rose upwards, carrying Aang with it. The rise was brief, however, as the bag expanded into a dome-like canopy and quickly became buoyant in the atmosphere, ceasing Aang's fierce plummet and transforming it into a peaceful, steady descent. The Avatar looked up, in amazement, at the strange yet simple device that had unexpectedly saved his life, remarking on the design that was so ingenious of Fire Nation technology yet minimalist of Air Nomad blueprinting.

But before the Avatar could get too comfortable, his thoughts were quickly interrupted by the twigs and branches of treetops, which, swiftly managed to greet and guide their new guest through their canopies with a bumpy and painful welcome down their narrow slopes. Before Aang knew it, his tumultuous journey to hell and back and then to hell again was ended with a graceless thud on dirt and grass that left him debilitated and sprawled out, face-first, on the verdant floor. Aang moaned from his pitiful position as the torn remnants of the bag and its chords, which had saved his life, finally caught up with his body; emerging from the merciless, broken treetops in various sequences and landing gently on or around Aang, himself. Emotionally exhausted, a still conscious Aang took time to remain on the grassy floor momentarily in order to gain some rest and recover over his sudden experiences.

What had started as an otherwise normal day in Ba Sing Se for Aang and his friends had quickly turned into one of the more traumatic experiences of the young Avatar's 112-year-old life. He last remembered that he was leisurely cleaning off the fur of his pet bison, Appa—who had been newly reclaimed after a mysterious kidnapping in the desert—outside the lodge where he, Katara, Sokka and Toph were temporarily staying, when a strange, blinding light came upon him. Oddly enough, the next thing he knew was waking up in a freefall thousands of feet above the earth.

Up to this point, Aang's eyelids had been closed as he laid down on the grassy earth. Now however, he reopened them to focus on his current predicament, "Is this...some sort of a dream?" Aang asked himself, considering the notion that his bizarre circumstances could be the result of some sort of cruel, out-of-body experience. Being the Avatar, he was well acquainted with visions and metaphysical ventures into the spirit world, but usually it began with a strict meditation and never ended with a deadly plummet through the sky.

Moving the hand on his outstretched left arm towards his face, Aang pinched himself softly on the cheek, "Hmm…no, still feels too real." He replied in response to his earlier question, confirming his inner skepticism over his body being an astral projection. Then, taking a deep yet gentle breath, Aang slowly picked himself up to stand on his own two, slightly feeble legs. Peering around curiously at his surroundings, Aang found himself in the middle of a wild, organic utopia somehow similar yet greatly different from the calm forests or murky swamps of the Earth Kingdom, which, he had experienced before. The environment was humid, somewhat moist and lush with thick, dense flora that ranged from bushy shrubs and various shades and shapes of flowers to lengthy ferns and an endless array of tall, moss-covered trees.

"Where am I?" Aang, in a soft voice, raised another question to himself while scanning the foreign, green-hued setting before him. Just as he made the statement, another sound of snapping treetop branches and twigs permeated the air around Aang and a mysterious figure suddenly emerged from the treetops and landed roughly just a few yards away from Aang. Somewhat defensive due to his unfamiliar surroundings, Aang's attention turned to retrieving the only weapon he ever used or needed: his staff-glider. With the bulk of the apparatus on his chest freed away by the release of the large bag, the scrappier remnant was easier for Aang to remove from his upper body in a simple series of pulls and tugs. With his normal garment now fully exposed, Aang reached into its depths and pulled out his trademark staff-glider, twirling it quickly before using it to position himself in a defensive stance.

In watching the vague figure as it slowly moved around and recovered from its landing, Aang also saw a similarly ragged and shapeless bag, like the one that had saved his life, descend from the branches above the figure and land softly on its body, engulfing it completely. An inquisitive Aang then dared to carefully venture towards the hidden figure that now fought to free itself of the bag's voluminous, saggy remains. At less than a few inches away, Aang slowly extended the tip of staff-glider to gently prod the covered figure.

"Hey, who's poking me!" A familiar male voice emerged from inside the bag.

"G-General Iroh?" Aang awkwardly inquired in surprise as he retracted his staff.

The covered figure successfully managed to rid itself of the bag's remains to reveal none other than the renowned former Fire Nation general, himself; although he was dressed in Earth Kingdom attire. The general, as astonished as Aang, incredulously blinked at the Avatar, who was the last person he'd expect to encounter, "The Avatar? What are _you_ doing here? W-Where am I? What's going on?" Iroh asked while eyeballing his surroundings disconcertedly, as baffled over his circumstances as Aang, himself.

"I-I don't know…" Aang replied, his face slightly downcast due to confusion, "…everything happened so fast. I was in Ba Sing Se, a-and the next thing I knew-"

Before Aang could finish, he noticed a huge boulder, in the periphery of his vision, flying in his and Iroh's direction over the back of the general's shoulder. "Look out!" Aang cried as he shoved Iroh out the way and swung his staff at the oncoming boulder. A huge gust of air emanated from the thrust of Aang's staff and struck the boulder dead on, sending it away in an opposite direction. But just as quickly as Aang began and ended his counterattack, another flying boulder appeared from an indiscriminate location and headed straight for the unsuspecting Avatar.

Iroh, however, returned Aang's earlier favor by intercepting the boulder in its flight with a quick yet powerful burst of fire from his clenched fist; stopping the boulder's momentum, in its warpath and dropping it to the earth, as a result. But again, the quick defensive act was responded to by an even quicker offensive outburst, this time consisting of various sizes and shapes of rocks thrown from a now central location, barely a few yards away from Aang and Iroh, by an assailant hidden in the thick brush of the surrounding plant life.

Aang spun his staff like a propeller to create a fanning force of air to repel the oncoming mass of deadly rocks and boulders. Iroh responded similarly by firing short bursts of forceful flames that stopped the rocks in their direction.

"Looks like we got an earthbender!" Aang cried out.

"A not too friendly one at that, either!" Iroh responded, between huffs and puffs, "I've got an idea to flush him or her out though. But I need you to keep this individual busy!" He yelled to Aang.

Aang nodded, "Right!" He then began to twirl his staff even faster to create a stronger fan of air in order to compensate for Iroh's ceasing output. As Aang did this, the general stepped slightly back, took a deep breath of air and then expired a vicious, flowing mass of fire from his mouth into the massive air fan created by Aang's staff. As a result, a huge smoke screen flew forth from the air fan into the jungle facing both Aang and Iroh, enveloping the hidden location of the unknown earthbender. As the mass of rocks and boulders finally ceased coming, Iroh and Aang ended their assault, as well. Still in defensive stance, the two watched the smoke ridden jungle that faced them in hostility. Soon, the sounds of a gagging cough began to echo from within the smoke screen and a Dai Li agent staggered out from the depths of the grayed jungle.

Aang was stunned to see the presence of a Dai Li agent outside the gates of Ba Sing Se where they were specifically tasked to serve as both Long Feng's bodyguards and secret police force. Nevertheless, he still had a mind to tell off his former attacker, "Hey! What's the deal with attacking us!" He cried angrily.

The still hacking Dai Li agent weakly held up one of his hands to gesture an apologetic surrender , "I-I'm sorry…it's just that-I have no idea where I am, how I ended in this place or _who_ even put me here to begin with. I figured maybe I'd been captured somehow by the Fire Nation and you two were some sort of enemy patrol in disguise. My training has taught me to be hostile in foreign environments and to strike the enemy first whenever I'm in one."

"There lies your problem my good man. Being too brash is always the precursor to a short life-span." Iroh responded, sauntering closer to the Dai Li agent, "But you look fairly young and still well capable of learning from this mistake." The general spoke with an amiable smile.

The Dai Li agent nodded graciously, "Thank you for your understanding sir. Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dongshan Lin Wei-Yu, but my friends just call me Phil."

Iroh raised an eyebrow, "Phil?"

"Phil?" Aang also echoed, wrinkling his nose in reaction to his inquisitiveness.

"Yeah... Phil. I know it's a weird name, but it sounds different from all the other names you hear flying around the Earth Kingdom and I've come to take a liking to it." Phil replied.

Aang scratched his bald head before giving off a satisfied shrug, "Eh, works for me." He spoke before walking up to both Iroh and Phil, "Glad to meet you Phil, my name is Aang." The young airbender said while holding out his hand. Phil received the gesture gladly, "Hey, you're the Avatar that Long Feng talked to us about! By the way, those are some killer tattoos you have there. Wish I could've gotten something like that when I was your age."

Aang chuckled, "Thanks."

"I'm Iroh…" The former general spoke up, "…and while I have no tattoos, I am a deep connoisseur of tea and a master of Pai Sho. I can also breathe out fire whenever I wish, as I just displayed."

Phil nodded, "And who's that?" He pointed off into the distance behind Aang and Iroh. At his question, the two turned around, with intrigue, to face the direction from which Phil pointed. What they saw, however, caused Aang to gasp and Iroh's face to considerably droop. "The name's Azula. Actually…_Princess_ Azula of the Fire Nation." The pretentious Fire Nation princess spoke up for herself while standing at a small distance away from her uncle, the Avatar and Phil. She was clad in her usual Fire Nation attire.

"Oh no…Azula is here!" Aang cried, raising his staff-glider defensively.

Iroh sighed bemoaningly and lifted his right hand to bury his face in it, "Oh no…_Azula _is here?" He groaned.

"Hey, wait a minute, you guys know each other?" Phil asked.

Azula grinned, "Why yes, we do. The fat geezer to your right is my beloved uncle and the bald kid to your left is my object of future glory."

Unsure of how to correctly respond to the brusque statement, Phil awkwardly replied back, "Oh, uh…okay. Well, my name is Ph-"

"I don't need to know you, but you need to know me!" Azula interrupted harshly, "Now, I'm going to take time to suspend my impulse to electrocute the Avatar into a near brain-dead submission—and possibly my uncle too, while I'm at it—in order to demand some quick answers from you three losers: Where am I? Who brought me here? And where can I find this individual or _individuals_? So I can shoot a lightning bolt in their face for daring to capture a Fire Nation princess and drop her like some condemned peasant from the sky!"

Azula's similar confusion gave Aang a small, uncanny sense of comfort that allowed him to relax his defense slightly, "We're all asking the same questions. None of us know how exactly we got here _or_ where exactly this place even is."

"It's definitely not Earth Kingdom." Phil spoke up, "I've been around to most of the countryside and even some of the swamps in my lifetime. This place is nothing like anything I've ever seen."

"Of course not, Captain Obvious. This environment is way too tropical for even the most extreme of Earth Kingdom terrain." Azula responded.

"Perhaps we can find some connection in our presence here to our earlier experiences?" Iroh spoke while looking down at the ragged, black apparatus that was still strapped to his chest, "I'm sure that we all found ourselves waking up in the middle of a freefall, high in the sky, am I right?" He asked, removing the apparatus as he did so.

Aang and Phil both nodded while Azula raised a scorning eyebrow, "That observation still tells nothing of why we're all here."

"Well, what about what we were doing before we woke up in a freefall? I was just brushing Appa's fur outside before I saw a strange, bright light." Aang spoke.

"Same thing here!" Phil exclaimed, "Well…I wasn't cleaning fur, but it was just another normal day at work for me, you know? Spying on people, hunting down, imprisoning or executing suspected political dissidents, brainwashing refugees; just regular Dai Li stuff. So, this afternoon, I was chasing down this one, elementary school-aged, refugee kid that Long Feng had suspected of finger painting about the war outside the city. Just as I was about to nab the little bugger though, I saw the same bright light that you just talked about."

Azula narrowed her eyes, "Interesting. I had just finished defeating a Kyoshi Warrior not too long before I experienced that light as well."

The statement managed to displace Aang's interest temporarily, "Whoa, what we're you doing fighting a Kyoshi Warrior in the first place?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

The sadistic princess sported a sly grin, "Oh, let's just say…I'm planning a costume party." She replied vaguely.

"Okay…?" Aang retorted, uncomfortably, before returning back to the subject at hand, "...What about you Iroh?"

Iroh rubbed his chin, "Well, I was enjoying a cup of tea-"

"Typical." Azula interrupted with a roll of her eyes.

Iroh properly ignored his niece before clearing his throat to resume his statement, "As I was saying, I was enjoying a cup of tea outside my teashop, during my lunch break, when I was caught by this mysterious light as well."

Azula sighed, "So right now, all we have to work with is some 'mystified luminosity' to explain how we got here. Way to brainstorm people. Maybe we just might be able to find it walking around if we go look for it." She scoffed.

"You're not helping." Aang spoke with a frown.

"I know." Azula retorted charmingly.

Phil cleared his throat, "Well, I know this might sound crazy, but...what if we're all dead and this is some kind of afterlife? It kind of makes sense, you know? The white light and the falling?"

"Okay…that, literally, has to be the most absurd thing that I ever heard uttered from another person's mouth." Azula commented.

"I'm serious, though! I mean, how else can you explain what happened to us?" Phil asked.

Azula sighed with a growing impatience, "You know what? Fine. Let's play the hypothetical game and say that we _did_ bite the big one. Tell us then, is this heaven or hell?"

At her question, Phil lowered his gaze while penitently rubbing the back of his neck, "I-I don't know, but to be honest…I _do_ know that I've done a lot of pretty rough things with the Dai Li. Things that I don't think will exactly reserve a spot for a guy like me in heaven. This place _does_ have some serious heat though and who's to say that maybe some parts of hell don't have jungles?"

Phil's words managed to strike Iroh's heart, "I too have performed questionable acts in my past which could've hindered my salvation also. As a general for the Fire Nation, I've seen and done my own share of destruction to countless civilizations and people; much to my own shame." He solemnly spoke.

Azula rolled her eyes, "Way to pride our nation's victories uncle!" She sarcastically exclaimed, "Anyway, I just can't believe my words were actually taken seriously; but then again, I guess that comes with being a good liar. Alright, so maybe this place _could_ be hell? I say, so what? Personally, I have no qualms about my damnation; it's not like I never thought that I wouldn't end up here eventually anyway. I buried my morals with my conscience a long time ago and have learned to be a successful, Class-A sociopath without them. I have no regrets for my life."

Aang sighed, "Okay, that's enough with the death-talk guys. This is _not_ hell and we're _not _dead, okay? We're just lost in the middle of nowhere and it so happens to be really hot. Besides, I'm the Avatar, remember? The person who brings harmony and balance to the Four Nations? It's practically impossible for someone like that to end up in a place like hell after death. Also, if I was dead with you guys, then we'd be joined by all the spirits of my past lives as well."

"Says the Avatar who abandoned his home and the world for a hundred years…" Azula sneered, "…for all its worth, you probably deserve to be in hell more than any of us do. That explains why your other Avatar friends aren't with you."

Azula's brutal statement reopened a deep wound in Aang's heart that had only recently begun to heal.

"Azula, that's enough! Your disrespectful talk is unbefitting of a princess and I will not stand for it!" Iroh angrily yelled.

Azula slowly drew her gaze on her uncle through the corners of her eyes, "Excuse me uncle, but considering that you've been designated an outlaw and traitor to the Fire Nation, you're in no position to give me any kind of order."

Before Iroh could respond back, Aang's voice came first, "Iroh…it's okay." He spoke gently. Gripping firmly the body of the staff-glider that he still carried, the young airbender attempted to mask his inner anguish with an outward, stoic resolve, "Look, we need to try and find a way to get off this place. I say that we get to higher ground in order to better understand our environment. For all we know, there might even be more of us around."

Phil nodded, "You know what? Now that I think about it, I did manage to see some other floating bags in the sky when I was landing."

Aang nodded back, "Then it's settled, we make our way to higher ground and try to contact with others, if we find them, along the way."

Azula crossed her arms, "And who exactly made you the brave leader?"

Aang gave the princess a firm gaze, "I'm the Avatar and regardless of circumstances, I still need to find a way to guide the people that I'm with. If you don't wish to respect that, then you or anybody else are free to go their own separate way."

The princess returned Aang's stare with poise, "You're right, I _don't_ respect that. But there is strength in numbers so I'll play along...for however long it suits me."

"That's good enough." Aang responded, before turning his attention to the rest of the group, "Let's go." He spoke.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Aang and the company around him, a mysterious set of eyes was observing the group through a pair of infrared lenses, from high in the treetops, as they collectively began to move from their location. Phil, stopping in his tracks, felt this strange gaze upon his back and turned around to look upwards to the treetops where he sensed it. Iroh, trailing the leading Aang and preceding the reticent Azula, managed to notice the Dai Li agent standing aloof, in the back of their small, advancing file, while staring into the heavens.

"Phil! Is there something wrong?" Iroh asked with a yell as he stopped, causing Aang and Azula to also.

Phil was slow to respond back, his interest preoccupied with the treetops. As he focused deeply upon them, Phil swore that he could make out the faint image of, what seemed to be, a translucent silhouette perched atop the branches.

"Phil!" Iroh yelled, once more.

This time it proved to be effective as Phil, abruptly, snapped out of his trance, "O-Oh, It's nothing…!" He shouted back, turning his neck slightly to show his facial profile even though his eyes were still placed on the branches, "…nothing at all." He repeated softly while slowly backpedaling, his stare still fixed on the treetops. Little did Phil know, his gaze was being exchanged the whole time with another set of transfixed eyes watching the frame of his body, in the hues of thermal imaging, and quietly mimicking the sounds of his voice in a low, garbled, tone, _"…nothing at all."_

Finally, Phil turned his body around and jogged up to his newfound allies who resumed their advance immediately after he rejoined.

"What kind of a ridiculous Earth Kingdom name is _Phil_?" Azula condescendingly asked upon the Dai Li agent's return.

...TO BE CONTINUED...


	2. Part 2

PREDATORS: THE AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VERSION!

Part 2

"Either fight me like a man or stand still so I can take your head, firebender!" Jet screamed as he swung one of his hook swords at the hated enemy he was combating. Piandao, however, managed to evade the attack with yet another skillful parry that left his younger opponent increasingly frustrated, "Young man…for the last time, while I may be a citizen of the Fire Nation, I am _not_ a firebender! I have been patient with you thus far, limiting my capabilities; but if you continue to remain obstinate to my pleas, then I shall have no other choice but to take your life!" Piandao exclaimed; his straight sword thrust out towards Jet, by his right hand, as he strategically backed away, from the stubborn, teenage rebel, to create a fair gap of space between the both of them.

Jet snickered, "Fire Nation trash! Keep denying it all you want, but I'll never believe your lies! I know your kind too well, so it was easy for me to catch on to your _plan_ a long time ago. You must've known that I was the leader of the famed Freedom Fighters and that I had a huge, Fire Nation bounty on my head. So you found some way to knock me unconscious, capture me from Ba Sing Se, and throw me in this God-forsaken jungle to ensure that I don't receive help from my allies and you have a safe haven to kill me. But obviously things haven't gone so smoothly, as you hoped, so now you've resorted to playing innocent; in the hopes that I'll believe your words and lay my guard down, giving you the right moment to incinerate me with a fireball! Well…if you value your life, you better start letting those flames fly now, because it's going to take a lot more than tricks and petty death threats to defeat me! I have no mercy against firebenders!" He cried.

Piandao stood there staring at Jet as if he was insane, "What on earth are you talking about, boy!"

"Enough with the act!" Jet growled, raising his hook swords in resentment, "You don't want to firebend? Fine! You'll die from my advantage!" The teen yelled before starting a charge toward Piandao. Piandao, however, sighed as he calmly prepared for the oncoming attack, "For a life to end at such a young age; it truly is a shame." He murmured while entering into a defensive stance, already envisioning the counterattack that he would use to end his young opponent's life.

Just as both opponents were about to unleash their respective assaults on each other, a strong gale of wind came between them, abruptly halting the battle. Both Jet and Piandao then turned their attention to the direction from which the gale came, and saw a small group of fairly recognizable faces standing in front of the dense bushes, not too far from them.

"That's enough fighting Jet; we have enough problems on our hands already." Aang spoke, his staff-glider thrust out in the direction of the two warriors.

Jet gave a surprised stare at the Avatar, "Aang? What are-"

"I asked the same question earlier…" Aang gently interrupted before gesturing to the members of the party behind him, "…we _all_ did; both of ourselves and each other. But to be honest, none of us has a clue what we're doing here. "

"Piandao!" Iroh called out amiably, recognizing his fraternal White Lotus brother. The feeling became mutual as the elite swordsman sported a soft smile at the sight of the former general, "At last…a friendly face." He chuckled before sheathing his sword, irking the nearby Jet, in the process, "Hey, firebender, we're not done yet!" He yelled.

"I'm afraid you are." Iroh spoke as he and his group meandered closer into Jet and Piandao's vicinity, "Like the Avatar implied, fighting amongst each other is the last thing we need in these very perplexing and disturbing times."

Jet's eyes and nostrils flared out at the sight of Iroh, "You again! What is this, some kind of collective Fire Nation plot? I won't be taken down without a fight!" He cried, once again raising his hook swords defensively.

"Jet, stop!" Aang exclaimed, "Open your eyes and look around you: you're in the middle of nowhere surrounded by random people like the Avatar, a Dai Li agent, and the Fire Nation princess! Everybody is just as confused, over this situation, as you, so you've got to stop thinking that this is the work of the Fire Nation!"

Piandao sighed, "Finally, a voice of reason! First this fool randomly attacks me while I'm wandering through this jungle, trying to make sense of things, and then I spend almost what seemed like an hour trying to persuade him, in battle, that I'm not his enemy _nor_ am I firebender!"

Jet reacted to Piandao's words by sticking his index finger, in an accusing fashion, in Piandao's face, "Hey, the Fire Nation has had everything to do with what's wrong in the world today! When I saw your Fire Nation clothes and smelled smoke coming from somewhere in the jungle, I knew that _you_ had to be up to something!" He retorted, masterfully managing to clinch the long strand of wheat, in his teeth, as he forcefully talked.

Aang cleared his throat apprehensively, "Actually… me, Iroh, and our new friend, Phil, were the ones responsible for that."

Phil, alongside Aang, nodded, "Yeah, it's actually kind of a funny story-"

"No one wants to hear it, either!" Azula loudly interjected, arms crossed and still keeping her space from the closer mass of her male associates, "Look, I don't know—and honestly don't care—about anyone else, but I need to find a way out this jungle sometime this century! So if you guys are done 'bonding' with each other, I'd like to start moving again." She impatiently spoke.

"It's a strange day, indeed, when you see the Fire Nation princess in the company of both commoners and the Avatar, himself." Piandao spoke, in amazement, before taking a few steps closer toward Azula and saluting her with a bow, "Princess, Master Piandao; at your service."

Azula stared down at her countryman with narrowed eyes, "Hmm…yes, I've heard of you: the famed swordsman who compensates his lack of firebending ability with the skill of a blade. Admirable, but I still hold no respect, in my heart, for deserters."

Piandao raised his body, "Princess-"

"Spare me the excuses. It's torture enough for me to associate with a group of my inferiors, let alone another one who is a shame to the Fire Nation military." She interpolated.

Uncomfortably, Piandao cleared his throat, "Thank you for your…_understanding_, princess."

Making the most of an awkward situation, Aang decided to speak out, "Alright, well at least our numbers have increased; which means better protection against the unknown." He smiled.

"I don't care how lost I am, I'm _not_ hooking up with _anything _Fire Nation related; period." Jet sneered, still holding his hook swords defiantly. In an attempt to assuage the hostility of the troubled teen, as best he could, Aang placed a hand on Jet's shoulder, "Look Jet, we need to stick together; at least just for a little while, until we can ultimately figure out a way out of this place. Right now, though, we have no understanding, whatsoever, of this environment; so there's a better chance of survival if we use all the resources we have, and that means you, me, and everyone else."

Jet gave Aang a hard stare before slowly moving his gaze onto Piandao, Iroh, and Azula, respectively, "As long as _they_ keep their distance from me, then everything will be sunshine and roses." He spat, sheathing his hook swords afterwards. Aang took a sigh of relief at Jet's answer and removed his hand from the teen's shoulder.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, maybe we should let down that old lady above us." Phil said nonchalantly, drawing the attention of the crowd to the branches high above them. There, a mysterious elderly woman dangled helplessly by the chords of her tattered, deflated bag, which, was caught up in the crooked branches of the treetops above her. Sporting a nervous smile, she addressed the people below her, "I'm sorry to bother you folks down there, but I'm in need of some assistance, please!" She spoke in a surprisingly cordial tone, given her circumstances.

"How do you think we should get her down?" Aang asked the nearby Iroh while concentrating his gaze on the trapped old woman. A similarly gawking Iroh scratched his beard as he thought up a response, "Well…I would suggest-"

His sentence was cut short when a short jet of blue flame suddenly singed across the chords above the elderly woman, causing her to fall from her elevated height, in the branches, and land roughly on the ground before the group of people. Instinctively, both Aang and Iroh's eyes drew on Azula, followed by everyone else's. Standing in her same position, with one hand casually placed on her hip, and the other, raised high, at an angle, above her head, Azula then lowered her arm and blew out the residual smoke rising from her two, extended fingers. Sensing the stares upon her, Azula returned them back indifferently, "What? She needed to be freed, right?"

Iroh shook his head, disapprovingly, before stepping towards the recovering old woman, "Madam…" He uttered, as he helped her to her feet with his hands, "…please excuse our roughness."

The old woman grunted as she supported her weight on her feet, "It's quite alright, I only just almost broke my hip but…I've been through worse pain before." She replied while removing the torn remnants of the apparatus from the trunk of her short body. Looking up to Iroh, she smiled, "Thank you for your kindness, sir."

Iroh nodded with a similarly friendly smirk, "The honor is mine, madam. Such an unfortunate circumstance could only be the result of the same perilous journey, through the sky, that I and all the others, standing before you, have already experienced. We were lucky to have not shared the same condition as you."

The old woman moaned, "Oh, what a horrible journey it was too. Tell me, who are you people? Where are we?" She asked in bewilderment.

"Well…in regard to your last question, that's what we're still trying to find out." Aang replied, sauntering towards the old woman with an open hand, "My name is Aang, though, and I'm the Avatar. The man who helped you to your feet is Iroh, and these people around me are the others that we've found in this jungle, like you."

The old woman turned a surprised gaze on Aang before she courteously received his gesture with both of her hands, "The Avatar? What an honor it is to finally meet you! Are you the reason that I've been brought here? Do you somehow have the power to teleport people from their homes too?" She asked.

Aang shook his head, "No ma'am, I have nothing to do with any of this. My presence here is just as much a mystery to me as you."

"Oh." The old woman replied, in a slightly disappointed tone, "Well…are you any closer to ending the Fire Nation's war and restoring balance to the world?" She asked, eager for some sort of good news.

"No." Azula blurted.

"Yes…!" Aang quickly returned, "…sort of-well…I'm working on it! Anyway, the fact of the matter is this: I came up with an idea to travel to higher ground, in order to survey the environment and possibly find a way off this place. Would you like to join our group?"

"Would I? What other choice do I have?" The old woman responded practically, "My name is Hama, and I would love to help you in any way I can."

Aang nodded, "Great! Um…can you bend?"

"Judging by the look of those clothes, I bet it's fire." A nearby Jet spoke with a scowl, unsheathing one of his hook swords with his left hand and patting its edge, softly, in the palm of his right, menacingly. A disturbed Hama sported an uneasy grin, as a result, "Oh no, child…I'm actually a waterbender. You see, I was captured from the Southern Water Tribe and imprisoned by the Fire Nation, at a young age, during one of the many waterbender purges in that region. I was freed, soon after, however, for good behavior. Since then, I've been living in Fire Nation territory as a simple innkeeper." She then reached down to tear off a large, flowering plant from the ground. Rising up, Hama used her free hand to hover over the top of the flower and, with a quick swipe of her hand, she removed the water from the body of the flower, causing the plant to shrivel, "See?" She testified to Jet.

At the sight, Jet's facial expression immediately relaxed, "Hmm. Okay, you're cool." He said calmly before returning his hook sword.

"Wow, I've never seen a waterbender bend the water in a plant, like that, before! What kind of technique is that?" Aang asked, after witnessing the marvel. Hama grinned, "Oh, it's just a little skill that I developed, myself, a long time ago." She replied, amiably, while still holding the hovering mass of water, from the flower, in her free hand.

"It's totally awesome, too." Phil randomly complemented, earning the similar murmurs of those around him, with the exception of Azula. The silent chatter ended, however, when the sounds of a single, unknown handclap made a strange introduction into the vicinity.

"What now?" Piandao muttered while grabbing the hilt of his sheathed sword and eyeing the surrounding environment suspiciously; his sentiment, likewise, spreading to the others, who also readied themselves, defensively, for the unexpected. As if sensing the growing hostility from the stiff silence, the owner of the mysterious applause promptly exposed herself from behind the trunk of one of the many nearby trees.

"Whoa, calm down everybody. I just wanted to complement the old waterbender too." June the Bounty Hunter uttered, as she stepped out into the open, "What can I say? I'm a sucker for entertainment." She added while raising her forearms, opening her palms, and giving off an innocent shrug. Iroh was taken aback by the bounty hunter's familiar presence, "Oh, June! If I had known _you_ would be here, I would have put on some better clothes!" The general remarked of his young crush.

June rolled her eyes, "Yeah…nice to see you again, too, Iroh." She replied jadedly.

"Boy, I guess nothing is so surprising anymore." Aang sighed, as he recognized the young huntress. Although their last encounter was less than friendly, he nonetheless felt no threat from June, given the state of affairs, as she approached his group, "How long where you standing behind there?" He asked her bluntly.

June sighed, "Oh, long enough to watch these two guys duke it out, notice the old lady get stuck in the trees, and see the rest of you come to resolve it all."

"So…was there a reason why you stayed hidden this whole time?" The Avatar inquired, once again.

June crossed her arms, "Aside from being a natural loner...I'm also an opportunist. I don't get involved in things that don't concern me, but I do take advantage of chance openings when they're to my benefit. How I ended up from the back of my shirshu and into this tropical paradise, in the space of a few seconds, is beyond me; but after eavesdropping on the conversations of you guys, I realize that you all are looking for the same answers that I seek. So, needless to say, count me as the newest addition to your group, as well."

Aang beamed at June's statement, "Sure! We've been looking for more people to join up with us, anyway." He spoke.

"Uh, for those of us who have no idea who you are, would you mind filling us in?" Jet asked June, while observing the huntress curiously.

"June the Bounty Hunter…" She responded, "… I hunt people for a living and I'm real good at it. Happy?" June languidly replied with a hint of sarcasm.

Phil raised his eyebrows, "No kidding? I hunt people down too! Hey, do you find you it easier to break the legs of running targets, or do you aim for severing the old Achilles-tendon to stop them in their tracks?" He genially asked.

June rubbed her chin, "That's a good question. I usually solve that problem by using the Spinal Cord Rearrangement Technique. That way, they stop running _and_ they don't put up a struggle." She responded.

Phil snapped his fingers, "Of course, _the Spinal Cord Rearrangement Technique_! You know, I don't know why I don't use that move more often. I've heard that it's really effective!" He replied back.

"Uh, you know what guys? I think it's time now to keep moving!" Aang quickly changed the odd and uncomfortable subject. Moving ahead of the company around him, Aang lead the advance, once again, as the haphazard group, of now eight people, followed behind him to resume the trek up the terrain of the mysterious jungle. The hours slowly passed by, though, as they ascended up the countless hills and knolls of the foreign landscape. By the time the group had reached an uncharacteristically dry, open clearing, many of the company were exhausted from the long period of walking in the humid climate of the jungle.

"Aang…I think…that it's time…for a rest." A weary Iroh spoke from behind the sweaty airbender, himself.

Stopping in his tracks, Aang turned around to face his band of fatigued and perspiring individuals, who, had halted their stride, after his, as well, "Well…I guess a little break won't hurt." He spoke, upon observing them. But while each person graciously took time to lie down upon certain, spread out spots along the ground, an annoyed Azula used her moment of respite to briskly make her way toward Aang, "Look here, Avatar, I'm not sure where exactly you went to leadership school at, but you're doing a pretty lame job. We need to keep moving." She sneered.

The Avatar, in a meditative sitting position, along with Iroh, looked up to his disgruntled, ill-fated, travel companion and sighed, "In case you haven't noticed, Azula, everybody is tired. We've been walking for hours. You look like you could use some rest, yourself." He replied calmly.

"Yeah…_thanks_ for the concern. But In case _you_ haven't noticed, the sun hasn't moved from its position in the sky for hours either!" Azula responded back.

Aang's eyebrows raised in alarm from Azula's report, "What?"

"She's right." Iroh spoke as he sat beside Aang, "Ever since we've been walking, the sun hasn't moved an inch. As firebenders, I knew only Azula and I would be the ones to notice this strange phenomenon, but, for the sake of group morale, I have been hesitant to speak out about it."

"It only gets better too…" Azula began, as she knelt beside Aang to face a small, cracked opening, within the rocky earth, in front of him. It housed a small puddle of water, "…when I first landed here and saw no sight of civilization, I decided to make a water compass to get some kind of read on my location. This was what I saw." She finished, before reaching into a pocket on her trousers and pulling out a small leaf. Placing the leaf in the water, she, Aang, and Iroh watched as it spun wildly in a 360 motion.

Aang shook his head, "What does it mean?"

Azula sighed with annoyance, "It means one of two things, genius. Either we are on one of the Earth's poles surrounded by a magnetized rock, or the world has suddenly managed to lose all of its magnetic poles since we arrived in this jungle."

The revelation stunned Aang as he sat staring at spinning leaf. Reading his emotion, Azula gave a slight grin, "Still feel like resting now?" She asked, knowing her rhetoric would add insult to Aang's injured confidence. Standing up, she then left the Avatar to ponder on both her words and findings. Iroh, no stranger to Azula's subtle ways of taunting, decided to reinforce the Avatar's resolve as he had done so many times with his own nephew, "I know how troubling this may look, Aang, but for the sake of everyone else, you must keep strong."

Aang let out a deep breath of air through his nostrils, "Azula doesn't bother me, Iroh. But this…_this_ really bothers me…" He spoke before trailing off, "…You know what, Iroh? I think you and Azula aren't the only ones who've noticed something weird."

Iroh raised his eyebrows, "Oh?"

The Avatar then locked his eyes with the general, "Have you taken a good look at the people here?"

Iroh blinked confusedly from Aang's odd question, "Uh…I suppose so. What exactly do you mean?"

Aang then turned his gaze onto the six other people that laid, sat, or stood, leisurely, at a distance, in front of him, "A member of the fierce Dai Li, a radical anarchist, a deadly swordsman, a sadistic warrior princess, and a ruthless bounty hunter. All of them are lethal individuals with some type of history for violence. Except Hama, of course, who is the only person out-of-place amongst them."

Iroh paused for a moment, to reflect upon Aang's words, while observing the six people from the point-of-view that he shared with the Avatar, "I suppose the Fire Nation general, who earned great fame for his exploits on the battlefield, fits into this examination, as well?" He asked plainly. Aang turned a somber gaze on Iroh, who, though his eyes were still fixed ahead, gave a short chuckle, "It's quite alright, I understand. It's a valid observation; but still, what about you Aang? Where does the Avatar fit in all this?"

Sighing, Aang was hesitant to respond, "Do you remember what Azula said earlier? About me abandoning the world and the affects that it has had? Well, what _if_ all the suffering and death that I've caused, albeit indirectly, makes me no different from anyone else? I suppose that I'm just as much a violent person or…killer too." He then became silent for a brief moment, "If this is so, then is it more than just a coincidence that all of us are here together?"

After asking the question, Aang looked at Iroh once again, who, this time, returned back the Avatar's stare just as pensively. Aang then lowered his gaze as if to further contemplate on the disturbing thoughts and revelations that had come to him. Two quiet minutes passed and then Aang quickly rose up from the ground to stand on his two feet "All right everyone, break time is over!" He exclaimed loudly; his tenacity once again rejuvenated by his sense of duty as the Avatar. All that was important now, to Aang, was leading his group of people out of the jungle and, for the sake of sanity, he knew that he needed to focus on that. The questions could wait, for now, but at the moment, he and everyone else needed to reach higher ground without another moment's delay.

So, with minimal reluctance on the part of the group's various members, the sweaty voyage resumed, once more, with the Avatar at the helm. Exiting soon from the open clearing, the march came into contact with the jungle, yet again, but found its brush and flora less thick than the deeper areas from which they had came. Recognizing these environmental signs, from his earlier, nomadic adventures with Katara, Sokka, and Toph, Aang quietly understood that he and his troupe were finally getting closer to the point of their destination. More minutes passed by and after grazing past another small collection of trees and brush, the Avatar finally saw the horizon of the land's promontory in the short distance beyond the leveling slopes of earth before him. Turning back, joyously, to his group, he yelled "There it is guys, the highest point of land! C'mon!"

With renewed energy, a damp and sticky Aang smiled as he jogged over to the promontory, reaching its edge in a matter of moments to finally survey the land. But as he stood there looking out into the vista that pressed both the heavens and earth into one massive scene, the open smile that was strewn on his face slowly retreated into a wide, shocked gape. The members of his traveling party soon joined him at the summit and they too were gripped by a similar response from the extraordinary sight before their eyes. Some, incredulously, rubbed their eyes as if to confirm what they were witnessing was in fact real while others, like Aang, gawked at the view in a pure stupor. Even Azula, always the calm and calculated individual, felt her heart jump as she looked on with both amazement and wonder at the bright sky overlooking the endless, unstirred, green topography of the jungle below. It was abnormally littered with the large, celestial bodies of strange, orbiting planets and moons. Save for the glowing sun that rested in the backdrop of the sky, the visual was vastly different from anything that the benders and warriors had ever seen on Earth and brought the group to a stunning conclusion that only an astonished Piandao was finally able to verbalize, "Sweet heavens…I-I don't believe it…we're on another world!" He exclaimed.

…TO BE CONTINUED…


	3. Part 3

PREDATORS: THE AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VERSION!

Part 3

The journey back down into the depths of the jungle was quiet. A thick aura of uneasiness had permeated through the ranks of the traveling, eight individuals, after they realized that they were stranded on a foreign planet and the silence had served to encapsulate the perturbed mood amongst them. But as each person struggled, in his or her own way, to cope with the anxiety and perplexity, stemming from the recent, disturbing revelation, one question was abstractly shared in the hearts of all eight people.

"So…what do we do now?" Phil finally broke the silence while halting in his tracks.

The gravity of the simple statement had enough power to stop the rest of the advance, as well; a testament to the similar sentiments of the Dai Li agent's peers. Aang, still at helm of the march, turned his back around to show Phil, and everyone else, a composed face, "Simple. We focus all our energies, now, on finding a way off this place." He replied straightforwardly.

"And just how do we that? Didn't you see the sky back up there? We're on another planet for crying out loud; we can't just _find _a way out of here!" Jet tensely cried.

"Yes, we can Jet. Look, _something_ brought us here and that same something can take us back. We just need to find it…wherever it may be." The airbender retorted.

"Oh, that sounds _real_ encouraging. Searching for a 'something' in a jungle filled with a lot of nothing!" The freedom fighter fired back. As he did this, June, who had been standing behind Jet, sighed, "You want to calm down a little kid? If that vein in your neck gets any bigger, it's going to pop; all over _me_, particularly. I already have enough things in my hair, from walking around this giant sweatshop-of-nature and I don't need human blood to add to the mix."

Jet quickly turned around to face the bounty hunter, "Hey, you don't tell me what to do! I'll express how I feel, _whenever_ I feel, okay!" He yelled, rudely, in June's face. The huntress stared back at Jet, eye-to-eye, with an unmoved expression, "Oh really?" She asked calmly. Just as Jet opened his mouth to issue a response, he felt the stiff force of an uppercut suddenly erupt at his chin, fiercely knocking both sets of his teeth together and sending his mental faculties tumbling backwards. To the amazement of the spectators around the abrupt scene, the freedom fighter's body flew nearly as high as June had extended her entire right arm and traveled even further, landing at the tip of Aang's feet despite the young airbender being more than five feet away, from Jet's original position, and with both Iroh and Piandao trailing behind him.

"Express_ that_." June muttered as she lowered her arm and pitilessly looked down at Jet, who held his sore chin with both of his hands, in pain, while lying backwards and squirming on the ground.

"June! That was totally unnecessary!" Aang yelled as he quickly knelt down to tend to the injured Jet. Iroh and Hama, the only two, other than Aang, to show visible concern, also followed in the Avatar's suit, and approached Jet to give help. But before any of their hands could even reach Jet's body the freedom fighter briskly sat himself up in an attempt to salvage his hurt pride, "Get away from me, I'm okay!" He yelled to Aang, and the others around him, before raising his body back onto his feet with slight difficulty. Standing erect, Jet glowered at an otherwise unsympathetic June and gnashed his teeth, "Alright, let's go!" He snarled, reaching for his hook swords.

Both Piandao and Iroh, in their close proximity, managed to read Jet's body language, in time, to restrain the arms of the angry teen from behind; much to his frustration, "Hey, get your dirty Fire Nation hands off me! I said get off me!" He yelled repeatedly.

"Calm down son. You mustn't repay violence with more violence!" Iroh grunted as he held back one side of Jet's writhing body.

"Easy for you to say, you weren't the one that just got hit!" Jet retorted.

Azula, watching the chaotic scene, with great interest, from the back of the advance, caught her breath after giving off a delighted giggle, "Oh, there's so something majestic about physical violence. It always seems to brighten my day!" She spoke blissfully. Phil, on the other hand, while standing next to the princess, donned a more serious countenance as he cracked his knuckles through the hard granite of his rock gloves, creating a distinct 'crunching' noise that differed from the normal 'pop', "Looks like I might have to step in and settle this. A little 'bump' to the head with these babies, on my hand, and the kid will forget all about this. _That_ should calm him down." The Dai Li agent uttered before walking away from Azula and towards Jet.

"Ouu…" The Fire Nation princess cooed with anticipation as she watched Phil move, "…more brutality!"

Aang found himself powerless as he tried to lend a consoling voice amongst the ruckus of others that surrounded the restrained yet furious freedom fighter, whose own loud voice was at the focal point of the discord. But just as the Avatar began to vainly plead with Jet, again, and Phil came, unexpectedly, into the disorderly area, a strangely faint, yet distinct, rumbling noise made itself audible amongst the flurry of human voices. Gradually, the voices quieted down, at the strange occurrence, and heads turned, naturally, in the direction from which the sound came.

Narrowing his eyes, Aang began to make out a vague series of broad, moving objects, coming in his and the rest of the group's direction, from the far distance beyond the blanket of random, deciduous trees and shrub ahead of them. With their attention drawn away, both Iroh and Piandao, unintentionally, released their hold on Jet, who, despite being free, once again, also had his curiosity aroused by the mysterious clamor.

A bad feeling began to stir in the pit of Aang's gut as the noise steadily began to amplify and the frame of the moving objects developed, a little more clearly, into a pack of fleet-footed, quadrupedal creatures; marking their decreasing distance. Gripping his staff-glider, Aang slowly positioned himself into a defensive stance, "Guys…" He spoke, apprehensively, to the rest of the company around him. Understanding the tone in the Avatar's voice, the collection of warriors and benders, around him, also prepared themselves for what looked to be an oncoming engagement. Aang could feel his heartbeat begin to rise as the stampeding sounds loudly drew nearer and echoed a pretention of aggression from their raucous rhythms.

Finally, the mysterious creatures entered into the group's full range of vision and, to their surprise and disgust, revealed themselves to be a feral horde of unfamiliar, grotesque beasts with long, multiple horns projecting from their large, narrow heads and down their spinal columns. They possessed thick, leathery, gray skins, bare of any trace of hair, and had massive yet lean, burly bodies that resembled some abomination of a fusion between a lion, tiger, and wolf. Despite their bulk, however, the creatures displayed themselves to be as agile as they were swift; maneuvering, effortlessly, through the countless assortment of trees, in their path, as they dashed toward their targets at a lightning-quick pace; uttering strange, hostile growls, in between. Without a moment's delay, the benders of the group quickly used their powers to attack the otherworldly creatures while they were still at a safe distance.

Aang swung his staff repeatedly to generate a series of air blasts against the creatures, while Phil summoned blocks of earth from around him and shot the projectiles at the oncoming beasts. Iroh and Azula, relentlessly, sent forth a barrage of blue and red colored fireballs, while Hama harnessed water, from the plant life around her, to add a sequence of water whips to the collective onslaught. But even as the torrent of elemental attacks assaulted the pack of creatures, the beasts were nimble or resilient enough to either dodge or withstand the hits. As a result, they continued their wild dash towards their targets.

"Don't stop no matter what!" Aang yelled; sweat running down his brow as he persistently generated more air blasts.

"Nothing's working! They're way too fast and powerful!" Phil shouted back.

Piandao unsheathed his sword, "We have no other choice! We must prepare for close combat!" He yelled.

"Against those things? No way, I'm out of here!" Jet exclaimed as he frantically turned back to run away.

"I'm sorry Aang, but he's right! We need to run!" Phil screamed, giving the Avatar, alongside him, a quick glance before taking flight as well. Aang paused from his assault momentarily to turn his head toward his retreating companions, "No! Phil, Jet wait!" He cried out.

"AANG, LOOK OUT!" Iroh bellowed to the distracted airbender.

"Huh!" Aang muttered as he quickly whipped his head back towards the direction of the oncoming creatures. One creature had already broken through the defense and was caught, by the surprised eyes of the Avatar, flying in midair, as it attempted a pounce aimed towards him. In a speedy reaction, Aang barely managed to dodge the beast's attack with a quick, acrobatic tumble, to the side, that left the creature landing on grassy dirt. However, the sprightly movements of the creature's dexterous, muscular body allowed it to quickly rebound from its failed assault and spring towards Aang, once again; much to the airbender's surprise.

Upon witnessing the first creature break through the defense, followed by the others of its pack, a fearful Hama was the next one to depart from the group body, screaming dreadfully as she ran away, blindly, into the jungle behind her. Unfortunately, one of the alien beasts caught sight of her fleeing and engaged her body in hot pursuit. Iroh, however, managed to notice this, "Hama!" He yelled, before rushing off to aid his fellow elder.

At Iroh's unexpected departure, a surprised Azula was then left to face off against two of the savage beasts, by herself, "Thanks for putting family before friends, uncle!" She cried, in a mixture of anger and sarcastic wit, while vigilantly eyeing the movements of the two beasts before her. Piandao baited and strafed the attacks of the beast that targeted him, with his sword, while Aang performed similar actions against his own untamed enemy, "I-I don't want to hurt you…" He stammered, as he and the beast were locked in a slow, circular stand-down, "…even though you're so, so ugly." He continued, grimacing his face as he observed the features of the repugnant creature. The beast itself, snarled, and stared back at the Avatar, fiercely, through the tiny, black pupils of its similarly small, beady, yellow eyes. A nervous Aang could tell, from the creature's low body movement, that it was about to attack again. It was at that very moment that Aang then came to the realization that if he was going to live to see another day, he would have to go against his pacifist principles and kill the creature before him.

Taking a deep gulp, Aang conjured up bravery and prepared himself. The beast, like he predicted, sprang at him suddenly and Aang, once again, managed to use the passive movements, of his airbending discipline, to swiftly evade its attack with a graceful spin. However, just as the beast grazed past him, in flight, Aang prepared a quick counterattack at the end of his full 360 motion. With a strong, vertical thrust of his staff-glider, downwards, Aang generated an air blade, from its momentum, which struck the thick neck of the creature; lobbing off its head, in one motion, and sending its decapitated body crashing, clumsily, to the ground.

Jet, meanwhile, was panting hard as he ran away, intensely, from the site of battle. As the sounds of voices, both monster and human, quieted down behind him, and his gasps became synonymous with the resonance of tall, breaking blades of grass, between his rushing footsteps, Jet began to feel at ease. But before the freedom fighter could slow his pace for a rest, the dark silhouette of a large, heavy figure tackled him from the corner of his eyes. Landing roughly on his back, Jet was then pinned down by the weight of one of the hideously daunting creatures that he had ran from; much to his shock. Viciously growling, as it attempted to lock its sharp, jagged teeth on Jet's face, the monster was desperately resisted by the freedom fighter, who, held off the jaws of the beast, with his hands, by grabbing and pushing off of two, of the many horns, around its face.

"AGGH! HELP! HELP!" Jet screamed loudly as the beast writhed its head violently to free itself of Jet's grip, while also making sporadic, but unsuccessful, attempts to sink its teeth into his flesh. Jet grunted as his muscles began to tense from bearing the force of the beast's powerful struggle and he could hear the beast's claws wildly scratch and pick up the dirt around both sides of his head. Fortunately for Jet, while the creature possessed an impressive build, it also had the disadvantage of having short arms; a stroke of luck that unintentionally helped the freedom fighter keep his face from being clawed as he threw off the balance of the assailing beast.

As both man and monster struggled on the grass of the jungle floor, Jet managed to feel the body of one of his dropped hook swords near the side of his fidgeting right thigh. Without another second's notice, Jet took advantage of the opportunity and quickly removed his right hand, from the creature's opposing horn, to grab the hook sword. He then stabbed the sharp end of its base, repeatedly, into the neck of the creature, "DIE! DIE! DIE!" He exclaimed, under the forceful grunts of his blows, while warm, red blood dripped from the creature's neck and onto his wielding fist. The creature roared in pain but was nonetheless weakened by the besieged freedom fighter's attacks. Amazed and frightened by the extreme resiliency of the creature, a tiring Jet, sapped of much of his energy by his sudden adrenaline rush, dropped his hook sword and returned to resisting the now incensed creature, with both of his hands, once again. He watched in horror, as his muscles began to finally give way, and the face of the monstrous creature began to progressively move closer toward his.

Unable to bear the fact of a soon-to-be violent death, Jet turned his face away and gave a final scream. But just as the teen thought all hope was lost, he heard the snapping sound of a whip followed by the surprised grunt of the creature on top of him. The next thing he knew, his body was suddenly freed from both the creature's weight and its deadly assault.

"Looking good there, boss!" June cried to Jet as she held off the monster, at the neck, with her long shirshu riding whip. The creature was forced to stand on its hind legs as June tugged her whip, from a distance, behind it, "Aren't you the cutest thing ever?" June scoffed, between grunts, as she progressively pulled the monster closer to her body with great effort. The creature roared again and shook its body wildly to resist June's will, but the huntress remained firm and managed to narrow the gap between both her and the creature to about four feet, "There we go…this should be close enough." She murmured. Rolling her wrists, June wrapped the partial ends of the whip, which she held, into her hands for a tighter grasp. She then gave a forceful jerk of her arms backwards and snapped the creature's neck, with a sickening crack, as a result.

The creature emitted a short groan and then slumped forward, limply. At this, June released her hold on her whip, allowing the dead creature to fully collapse on the ground before the still recovering Jet, "Whoa…" Jet muttered as he observed the lifeless body of his former attacker, "…y-you killed it!"

A weary June huffed as she stared down at the carcass of the foreign beast, "I got to hand it to these…'things'. They're as powerful and heavy as they come; almost pulled my arms from the sockets trying to reel it in."

Slowly picking himself up, to stand on his feet, Jet rubbed his sore arms, one after the other, while still staring at the dead creature. He then withdrew his gaze from the creature to June, "You saved my life…I owe you an apology." He spoke penitently. June quieted her panting as she gradually locked her eyes with Jet's, "Don't go getting too sentimental on me yet, kid. Let's just hope the others didn't end up like you almost did." She replied dryly.

Anxiously, Hama ran up to the tree, in her path, and wrapped her arms, as far as she could, around its broad trunk. Gripping its bark with her wrinkly fingers and long fingernails, Hama then proceeded to climb up the tree with haste. Reaching the first high branch she saw, Hama grasped it, dearly, before pulling her weight to perch atop of it. Panting hard from the intensity of her rapid activity, she then turned her sights to the ground, of the direction, from which she had come. As Hama had fearfully anticipated, the creature that she was running from emerged from behind a bush; along the same trail from which she had just come. Jerking its head to the right and left, the creature scanned for its prey, in the surrounding area, before its' acute tracking senses drew its attention to the particular tree branch, above, where Hama had made her last refuge.

"Oh no…oh no…" Hama nervously muttered as the creature, eyes locked on her position, slowly sauntered to the base of her tree. But just before it could grasp its claws onto the rough, dark-colored bark, intending to scale up the tree, a fireball landed a concussive blow on the creature's hide from behind. The creature, in alarm, then turned its body around and saw a stern-looking Iroh standing in the midst of the same bushes from which both it and Hama had traversed earlier; all while holding a clenched fist, emanating with thin palls of smoke, from his extended arm.

Giving a hostile growl, the creature then rerouted its unhurried advance towards Iroh. Watching the creature approach, Iroh then shot another fireball which hit the creature directly in the face but failed to inflict any damage. Again, Iroh released another fireball, this time hitting the creature on the shoulder, but he still received the same result. Meanwhile, the unscathed creature steadily narrowed the short distance, between both it and Iroh, as if it nothing had ever happened.

"Persistent now, aren't we?" Iroh murmured, with a hint of frustration.

The creature then gave a shrill roar and hurled itself at Iroh. The general counteracted with a low tumble, underneath the flying body of the creature, which served to switch the sides of the two opponents. Quickly picking himself up, from the verdant floor, Iroh then backed away, closer toward the base of Hama's tree, to create space between him and the creature. The creature, however, snarled with a growing sense of aggravation, as it turned to face its target, once again.

Iroh then positioned himself in a defensive stance, "Don't worry Hama; I think I have a way to finally kill this monster!" He yelled, over his shoulder, while keeping his sights on the approaching creature ahead.

"Really!" Hama cried, a sense of hope in her voice, "How?" She then inquired; looking down at Iroh and then at the creature creeping towards him.

"By using 'cold' fire this time." He responded back; before beginning a series of rhythmic, circular arm movements, shortly after his statement. The creature, however, ended its short, casual saunter and broke out into full sprint towards Iroh. Letting out a deep breath, Iroh prepared to strike, "I only have one chance at this…" He muttered, under his breath.

With only a short span of earth between them, the creature's breakneck speed had brought it to a dangerous nearness to Iroh within seconds when the general, suddenly, struck out his left arm and released a luminescent, azure-colored, bolt of lightning from his two extended fingers. He had judged the distance between him and the creature to be too little and his attack too swift for the creature to be able to dodge. But when the creature adroitly strafed its body to the right, at the last minute, successfully evading the bolt's path, the general was caught off-guard and left defenseless against the creature in its continuing momentum. Iroh gasped as the creature then lunged at him, claws first and Hama, watching the horrible scene play out below her, screamed against the projected outcome at the top of her lungs, "NO!"

The general, himself, shut his eyes tight and hoped for a quick, painless death. What he received, however, was a strong gust of wind that blew from his right side. Taken aback by the uncanny event, Iroh then opened his eyes toward the route where the peculiar gust had came and saw Aang approaching him with his staff-glider in hand and aimed in the general's direction. A baffled Iroh then looked in front of him and saw the raw, bisected carcass of the once attacking creature crumpled on the ground.

"Iroh, are you and Hama okay?" The Avatar asked as he stood next to the general.

Iroh responded by turning an incredulous gaze to Aang, "Did…you do that?" He pointed at the dead, mutilated creature.

Aang lowered his eyes with a sense of guilt, "It's one of the few airbending attacks used for offense. Only to be used in times of emergency."

Sensing Aang's disturbed emotion, Iroh placed his hand on Aang's shoulder, "You used it appropriately too. Thank you Aang." The general spoke with a warm smile. The gesture made Aang felt more at ease and he smiled back.

"Oh, Avatar Aang, thank you for saving our lives!" Hama hollered as she made her way down the tree to embrace the young airbender with a tight, bear hug.

"It's…no…problem." Aang grunted before Hama released him.

"What about the others? Are they still alive?" Hama then asked.

Aang opened his mouth to reply, but a different voice came out than his own, "We were asking the same question!" June spoke as she and Jet, trailing behind her, abruptly came onto the scene from somewhere in the open jungle. Noticing the conspicuous, bloody carcass of the creature in front of Aang, Iroh, and Hama, June raised an impressed eyebrow, "Whoa…I see you three really did a number on this one."

"Actually, it was Aang who saved us." Hama replied.

June then turned her sights on Aang and nodded, approvingly, "Never knew you had it in you, kid. Do a little more that and maybe you just _might_ be able to end the Fire Nation's war…that's if we get out of here, of course." She spoke.

Aang sighed, "Look can we stop talking about this? I'm really not the 'killing' type, I just did what needed to be done. Besides, we got more important matters to attend to. Piandao and Azula were still fighting off some of these monsters when I last left them. We need to go and help them out!"

With a shrill squeal, the creature made its final sound as Piandao struck his sword, deeply, into its chest; pushing down on the hilt, with all his weight, for his blade to penetrate further in the creature's tough flesh. Jerking around its body, violently, the creature's movements slowly died down to stillness and the master swordsman was left a victor. Sweaty, tired, and elated for his gauntlet to finally be over, Piandao took a sigh of relief. It was only moments ago that he had made the creature lose its balance and fall on its back, the result of a successful sword slash on its presumably sensitive snout, and he now contemplated on the event as he removed his blade from the creature's thick flesh, "I'm getting too old for this." He grumbled.

Not too far away from Piandao, a defiant Azula was still holding her own, in a struggle for survival, against two creatures. "HA!" Azula screamed as she cracked a lightning bolt, at one creature, from the fingers of her right hand. It dodged it, leaving its partner to attack the princess from the opposing angle; presuming her off-guard. The creature hurled itself at Azula, but the princess reacted by using her left hand to send off another deadly bolt of electricity, this time aimed for her new assailant. The unsuspecting creature was thusly hit, point black, and charred, instantly, by the powerful electrical current, while its body was still above ground.

The creature gracelessly fell and its momentum skidded its smoking body to base of Azula's feet. With her eyes still fixed on the remaining creature, the princess grinned insidiously, "After a while, you guys get pretty predictable…" She spoke to the unintelligible, skulking creature, "…which is where having the ability to emit lightning, from _both_ of your hands, comes in handy."

"Azula!" Aang's voice yelled from behind the princess. Knowing better, Azula didn't take her eyes off the crouching, lethal beast, in front of her, to respond to the call of her name. Instead, she waited for the moving footsteps, behind her, to reach her presence.

"Good. Looks like you survived." Aang spoke as he stood, defensively, beside Azula; against the last creature.

"Of course I'm alive. I only die on _my_ terms." Azula replied proudly.

The creature, uttering a low growl, looked around, in hostility, at the sudden collection of humans before it; understanding, somehow, in its primitive mind, that it was outnumbered, but still eager to fight, nonetheless. Its expression took a sudden change, though, as the abrupt sound of a loud, high-pitched, mysterious whistle permeated the air and alerted the creature. It then quickly turned around and ran away, in some unknown direction, into the dark depths of the jungle. The stunned group of humans were then left to ponder the strange turn-of-events amongst themselves.

"Wait…what just happened? What was up the sound?" A confused Jet asked.

Still looking out, confusedly, into the direction which the creature fled, Aang gave his response, " It looks like something…'called' it."

A haggard Piandao sheathed his sword in its hilt, "Good riddance, if you ask me. Anybody want to take a crack at explaining just what _that_ and all those other things, like it, were?"

"Not your normal, everyday animals obviously…" June spoke as she crossed her arms, "…but then again, maybe they kind of are."

Aang turned his attention to the young huntress, "What are you saying June?"

The bounty hunter held a grim expression as she looked at the Avatar, "Those creatures…the way they moved and attacked us? The way that last one reacted to that strange whistle? Those are the same kind of mannerisms that hunting animals display when they are sent to flush out the prey for the hunters. I would know since we bounty hunters do similar things to humans, but on a less extreme level. I'm absolutely certain, though, that _something_ sent those things for us…on purpose."

"B-But why?" A concerned Hama stuttered.

June gave a gentle sigh through her nostrils, "Like I said, to 'flush' us out. Just like hunting animals, those creatures did exactly what, whoever sent them, had wanted them to do: split us apart so we could be watched; tested even, to see how each of us ticks under pressure. When the controller of those beasts had seen enough, it called its 'pet' back, which, explains the loud whistle we heard." She replied.

"Wait, so…we're being hunted?" Jet inquired.

Turning her gaze onto the freedom fighter, June responded, "Either that, or the locals around here have a quite a way of greeting visitors."

"I don't think we're the first ones either…to be hunted, I mean." Piandao uttered, drawing the attention of everyone around, "I know I should have said this earlier, but…when I was wandering through the jungle, before I met any of you, I stumbled upon a strange sight: the corpse of a water tribesman."

"A water tribesman?" Iroh reiterated in surprise.

Piandao nodded, "A water tribesman; a warrior, from the looks of his armor, and possibly from the southern tribe. Judging by the decomposition of his body, he had to have been here days, even weeks, before any of us were! He also had a large, cavernous trauma to the chest; the mark of a blast of some sort. It looked, at first, as if it could've been the work of a firebender, but the wound was too deep and wide, in its radius, to be the result of a fireball. The man's mysterious fate has been in the back of my mind, since then, but now that June has brought this new issue to the forefront, I think I understand, now, what killed him. Something has been capturing humans and hunting them out here, even before we arrived."

Piandao's words gave Aang the last pieces of the puzzle that had been eluding him, "It all makes sense now!" He cried out suddenly, "This mysterious world, our random gathering, the creatures, the dead water tribesman that Piandao just mentioned. We weren't just captured, we we're _chosen_ and brought here for the same purpose. This planet is some kind of game preserve…and we're the game."

Aang's disturbing words created another bout of eerie silence amongst the group as they contemplated its meaning. Azula, however, broke it as she opened her mouth, "Look, we can't just stand here all day. What we need to do is follow the tracks of that creature that ran away. It'll lead us right to its master, who, according to the Avatar's conclusion, must be the one responsible for bringing all of us here."

"No way…" June spoke, "…it'll be a trap. Whatever controlled those beasts knows what it's doing. That creature is bait and we'd be following a dangerous lure if we tagged it. Trust me; I know what I'm talking about."

"No, you don't." Azula objected snidely, "How else do you expect us to get off this world? Or even survive for that matter? There's something out there poaching us, for its own sick purposes, and we need to find out what it is so we can strike it before it can strike us again. Then we can draw whatever information or resources we need from it to return back to the four nations." She retorted.

June snorted, "You're a fool if you think we'd be able to take down so easily, head on, whatever had the capability to control those beasts; which, we barely survived from, might I add."

The insult twitched Azula's nerve and she powered an aura of blue flames in both her hands, "NO! You're the fool for thinking you could speak to a Fire Nation princess so blatantly and not get incinerated for it!" She yelled, intending to scorch the bounty hunter.

A fearless June positioned herself in a fighting stance but the Avatar quickly came between the two, "STOP IT YOU TWO! We can't be getting hunted, out here, only to start killing ourselves! We all need each other to get off this world, remember!" He cried. At his plea, a reluctant June relaxed her body and then gazed at Azula, along with everyone else. The annoyed princess glowered at the bounty hunter, for a few extra seconds, and then stuck up her nose before extinguishing the flames in her hand, "Low-life peasant!" She spat as she folded her arms.

"What!" June cried, taking a step toward Azula. Aang held her back by placing his hand, gently, on her abdomen, "Calm down, June. It's okay." He spoke calmly to the irritated bounty hunter. June looked down at him and then back at Azula before giving a shallow sigh, "Whatever." She mumbled as she backed away. Letting out a deep heave of air, Aang then took advantage of the return to normalcy, "Okay everybody...here is how things are going to happen. We're going to follow Azula's idea of following the creature's tracks back to where it came from. Despite what June said, we have to take our chances. This may be our only way of getting off this world and back home."

Iroh nodded, "I'm in favor of it."

"As am I." Piandao added.

"Me too." Jet agreed.

"So am I." Hama also spoke.

Aang turned his attention to the quiet June, who stood near him, with her hands of her hips, "June?" He spoke inquiringly. The bounty hunter, however, turned her face away, "Whatever." She muttered, at which the young airbender gave a satisfied nod of approval.

"Wait a minute…" Jet spoke up, an awkward tone of perplexity in his voice, "…there's only seven of us."

The epiphany-of-a-statement struck each person as they turned their attention to what was amiss in their number.

"Hey…where's Phil?" Iroh asked.

…TO BE CONTINUED…

** To everybody whose been waiting for an update to this story, I deeply apologize for the long wait and thank you for your patience. I'd like to say I'd be updating every week, but I have quite the personal schedule. I will try to finish the story soon and all reviews have and will always be greatly appreciated.

-ND


	4. Part 4

PREDATORS: THE AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VERSION!

Part 4

"HELP…ME!" The loud, anguished cry echoed throughout the jungle vicinity, drawing a collection of steady footsteps towards its location. "HELP…ME!" The voice cried out in agony, once again, as the Avatar and his group emerged from the dense depths of the jungle and entered into a wide, open clearing. "Hey look guys, there's Phil!" Aang jovially exclaimed at the first sight of his lost comrade, who, was sitting in the middle of the vacant field, on his knees, and slouched forward with his back facing the group of humans. Instinctively, Aang prepared to jog over to the Dai Li agent, "Hey Phil, where were-" He was interrupted, halfway through his sentence, when Iroh suddenly caught him by the back of his collar. Quickly looking back, the Avatar looked up at the general in puzzlement, "Iroh, what are-"

"Don't go Aang…something is not right." Iroh cut the Avatar off with a deep, somber reply while gazing suspiciously at the view in front of them.

"What?" Aang confusedly asked as he turned his eyes from Iroh's face to Phil's slumped body, many feet away. As a result of the general's audible statement, the entire group had stopped at a distance from the Dai Li agent's body and stared at Phil's displaced, motionless figure in apprehension. "HELP…ME!" Phil uttered another painful groan, causing the empathetic Avatar to turn his attention back to the restraining Iroh, "I don't understand! Why are we standing here? He's our friend and he's calling for our help! Just look at him, he's obviously hurt!" Aang cried out.

"Hold on Aang." Jet spoke up; his own eyes still locked on Phil. Chewing the long strand of wheat projecting from his closed lips, the freedom fighter turned his gaze down to a rock near his feet. Crouching down to grasp it, he then raised himself back up and tossed the rock into the field surrounding Phil. As soon as the rock touched the ground, violent sparks of electricity erupted from the earth around the Dai Li agent, to the surprise of all but a few in the watching group. Jet was one of those few, "Exactly as I thought…" He muttered, "…basic guerrilla tactic: find one of the enemy, injure him and then leave him to call out for help from allies while you hide and lie in wait. Then, when they come, you kill them all in a surprise setup. The Freedom Fighters and I used to do this all the time, back home, when we went up against patrolling Fire Nation squads in our area."

"Amazing! Did you see how that electricity emerged from the ground? I've never seen anything like it!" Piandao spoke in amazement. A less than amused Azula, however, softly brushed back one of her bangs, "Shouldn't come as any surprise. If the being that brought us here is capable of transporting living creatures from one world to another, whatever technology it possesses must be vastly superior to anything we know of. Its cunning is commendable, though."

After witnessing the sight, a distraught Aang gently freed himself of Iroh's grip and stared on at the still, pitiful body of his friend, "So…what do we do then?" He asked innocently. To his surprise, he was met by silence from the cohorts around him. Taking his eyes off Phil, a persistent Aang looked over to the people to his left and right, "Well? What are we _going_ to do to _save_ him?" He repeated. This time, June answered the distressed airbender, "Nothing. We leave him, Aang. He's been rigged and it'll be suicide to get any closer to him. There's nothing we can do for him now." She spoke stoically. Aang couldn't believe the impassive tone of the huntress toward his ensnared friend, "You can't be serious…you all really _can't_ be serious?" He spoke, moving his eyes on each person around him. None returned his gaze except for Azula, "Hey…you're always free to save him yourself." She replied cynically. Desperately, the Avatar turned his attention to Iroh, "Iroh…?" He pleaded softly.

The solemn-faced general moved his eyes from the ground to give Aang a defeated look; putting his hand, gently, on the airbender's small shoulder, Iroh gave the Avatar his response, "Aang…I'm sorry." The incredulous Avatar looked back at the general with wide, bewildered eyes and backed away, very slightly, from him and the rest of the nearby company, "So what? Is that it? We're just going to leave Phil out here to die by himself! Who cares if he's rigged? If you guys don't want to save him, then I will!" He yelled.

Iroh quickly reached forward and caught the Avatar, by both shoulders, with his hands, "Aang, don't be foolish! Stop making this harder than it already is!" He spoke sternly to the stubborn child in his hands. "NO!" Aang retorted, "I'll use my air scooter or my glider to save him! There's still a breeze around here, I can-"

"AANG STOP…!" Iroh shouted at the top of his lungs, shaking the startled airbender in the process, "…there is _nothing_ that we can do." He then muttered, in his normal voice, while his fierce, wide, amber-colored eyes stared back at Aang's similarly large but innocent, cobalt-hued ones. Slowly, those same large, innocent eyes began to water and Iroh, at the sight, softened his gaze and embraced the young airbender into his arms. As the Avatar quietly lamented on his chest, Iroh turned his gaze onto the other individuals standing around, "The tracks are back the other way, let's start following them." He spoke. At his command, the group dispersed quietly, for the most part, with Azula being the only exception, "Pitiful. I knew the Avatar wasn't cut out for this." She murmured, with a sneer, as she turned away to follow the others after looking at the emotional scene in disgust.

"Azula." Iroh called out abruptly.

The princess had barely turned her shoulder when she halted her movement and peered over to her uncle, "Yes?" She responded in an annoyed tone. Iroh gave his niece a somber gaze, "If it only may be this once, please do me this favor…" He then nodded his head towards Phil's body. The perceptive princess understood the gesture and sighed, "Why not?" She jadedly answered, "Just please spare me anymore of the pity talk, it's embarrassing."

Giving a nod in silent reply, Iroh then escorted Aang away from the area, leaving Azula alone with Phil. Looking indifferently at the awkwardly poised Dai Li agent from her distance, Azula heard his same cry for aid once again, "HELP…ME…" He moaned. The princess, however, yawned, "Alright…let's get this over with." She spoke casually. Raising her right arm, Azula extended her index and middle fingers, and then aimed for the center of Phil's back. A short bolt of lightning erupted from the tip of her digits and forcefully hit her target dead on, jerking his slumped body further forward as a result. Smiling, the princess reveled in her accurate marksmanship, "Between the shoulder blades and right into the heart..." Azula remarked, observing the smoking, fist-sized, black hole in Phil's back, "…quick, efficient and fatal. Just the way I like it." She finished, before raising her fingers to blow out the smoke rising from them.

"HELP…ME…" Phil's voice echoed again, startling the princess. Azula stared at the crumpled corpse in shock and disbelief; she knew that she had inflicted a death blow and that there was no realistic possibility that Phil, or any other human, could have survived such mortality. It was then that a disturbing rationalization came into Azula's mind: the Dai Li agent must have been dead the entire time and something, in the surrounding area, was mimicking his voice. With a growing anxiety, the princess briefly eyed her surroundings, in suspicion, before quickly sprinting off to rejoin the others. Phil's corpse was then left isolated in the open clearing; the true details of his fate as masked away from human knowledge as the only clues which could have revealed it: a frozen expression of terror on his face, splattered blood running from the side of his neck downwards, and a gory, deep gash on the front of his drooping body.

Aang rubbed his drying, itchy eyes with the back of his right hand as he walked ahead of the group. He could sense the uneasiness of the hardened warriors, behind him, at having such an emotional leader –as if he, being a kid, didn't make his position awkward enough—despite him being the Avatar. Try as he might to hide them though, Aang still couldn't help but show his feelings. Even after all he had already experienced, death was still something that he wasn't quite accustomed to and he wondered if by not saving Phil, whether or not he had unintentionally killed another person who was supposed to be under his care. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and he looked over to his left to see Hama giving him a warm smile, "I still believe in you Avatar." She spoke, as if sensing his dilemma.

The gentle words quieted Aang's soul and restored a sense of relief within him, "Thanks Hama, I really appreciate it." He replied back. Iroh smiled as he watched the sight from a walking space behind the two individuals. He could see that the Avatar's spirit was being rekindled but he still feared for what lay ahead for not only Aang but everyone else, as well. Phil's death had firmly reinforced the direness of their situation and Iroh, closing his eyes, quietly prayed that things could not get any worse.

"Hmm…strange, the terrain is getting different." June muttered as she observed a stark change in the scenery along the trail of creature tracks. What was once a plethora of luscious, green foliage had gradually transformed into an overabundance of haggard looking trees and soil. Even the path that they were following had somewhat narrowed from the normal broad and muddled landscape of the jungle into a clearer, more distinct trail, as if somehow it may have been hewn by earlier trekkers. The huntress let out a deep exhale from her nostrils, "I don't like this."

"Would you ease up? You creep me out, more than I already am, when you talk like that." Jet spoke from behind June.

"You need better focus. A warrior's mind must always be clear before battle; one cannot let words affect him." Piandao spoke to the freedom fighter from nearby. Jet turned his head toward his former enemy, "When I want your advice I'll ask for it, firebender." He sneered. Piandao reacted with a sigh and rolled his eyes.

Aang gripped his staff-glider tight as the creature tracks finally led him and his group away from the narrow trail and into a more spacious area of land that showed signs of some sort of ghastly encampment. Muddled with the gloomy, gaunt and random forms of both whole and broken tree trunks—including a messy assortment of large, open cages—the atmosphere was further made ominous by the the skulls of both humans and creatures of unknown origin, which, indiscriminately littered the ground or ornamented the bodies of surrounding trees. Additionally shocking were the fresher, skinned carcasses of countless alien-looking creatures that hung from their legs, by rope, on the crooked branches of the various trees.

Sauntering cautiously through the area, Aang and his company were left aghast at the carnage around them. "Sweet mercy…what kind of place is this?" Hama uttered before covering her mouth with her hand to somehow evade the lingering smells of blood and rotting flesh.

"This is its camp, whatever it is. Obviously, we're not the only things that it's been hunting." Iroh replied, gawking back-and-forth at the many strung carcasses of both large and small creatures alike. By the sight of claws and fangs on nearly all of the dead creatures, the general judged that they may have been ferocious predatory animals during their lifetime.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Jet spoke after passing the decomposing body of large, skinned animal, buzzing with flies, on the ground. Aang too felt the same sentiment as he slowly led the trek through the camp, but his repulsion evaporated when he caught sight of a striking phenomenon ahead, "Uh, guys…!" He cried loudly, stopping in his tracks and attracting the attention of all the benders and warriors, "…what in the world is that?" He asked, pointing in the direction of his chosen subject.

In a reaction of fear, surprise and curiosity, Aang and his group beheld the strange view before them. A few feet away, some type of tall, burly creature was bound on its hands and feet, by rope, to the body of a high, statuesque monolith. While it possessed a humanoid form, the creature's distinct facial and physical features allotted it to a far different origin. As the humans approached the foreign creature, they could make out spiny jowls, which made up its mouth, hanging from its leaning, massive head. The head, itself, was lined on its periphery with small spiky extensions of flesh and a widowing peak of dark skin pigment, on its crown, which extended along the fringes of the creature's body, covering its arms, legs and torso sides but leaving its chest, abdomen and most of its face bare in a beige color. Thick, black extensions of tentacle-like "hair" stretched from the sides of the creature's head and draped over the near naked skin of the creature's slouched body, framing a set of shadowed, deep eye sockets on its inhuman face. The only vestiges of dignity that the creature had, in its bondage, was a brown loincloth that hung loosely on its unconscious body.

Aang and his group stared at the spectacle in awe and wonder. Iroh, however, turned his face away from the sight to reveal a concerned gaze, a gesture that all but a sly, discerning Azula failed to notice.

"Is it dead?" Hama finally spoke up.

"I think the question rather is: what it is it?" Piandao replied.

Azula wrinkled her nose, "An ugly freak-of-nature, that's for sure."

Aang rubbed his chin as he stared at the bound creature, "What could have possibly bound something so large…and why?" He asked himself thoughtfully. A more inquisitive Jet, however, ventured closer toward the creature and got near enough to reach out one of his unsheathed hook swords and prod the creature's chest gently. Seeing no reaction, the freedom fighter smirked and turned his face toward his companions, "Well, guess this thing really is-"

The creature suddenly snapped its head up and issued a loud, hostile roar that alarmed both Jet and the other humans behind him, opening its jowls wide to reveal the moist, pinkish flesh that lined the sharp fangs of its hollering oral cavity. The freedom fighter quickly backed away from the creature to the safety of his fellow human beings; watching, alongside them, as the creature continuously roared and writhed both its head and body about, struggling to be released from its bond.

"Whoa, I guess it's not dead!" Aang yelled.

Despite her own astonishment, Azula managed to gather her senses enough to force her attention away from the creature. Carefully looking around at the company near her, the princess took advantage of the creature's distraction and slowly backed away from the group without any eyes noticing her.

Aang and everybody else, meanwhile, stared on at the creature as it slowly calmed its fit of rage. "Okay, I don't get it anymore! Was this thing we were looking for?" Jet cried anxiously, his chest still rapidly pumping.

Holding his staff-glider out, as part of a defensive reaction against the bound creature, Aang shook his head in confusion, "I don't-well…it can't be! It's tied up like everything else!" He responded.

"But it's not dead...!" June stated, keeping her vision on the creature, "…why though?" She then murmured to herself. Despite the creature's hostile glances at the humans randomly scattered around it, something about the bounty hunter's returning gaze seemed to attract its attention the most. June responded similarly by locking her eyes with the creature's in a deep stare. As they exchanged glances, a foreboding chill ran up June's spine, "Oh no, I knew it…" She muttered.

A nearby Iroh overheard some of the bounty hunter's faint words, "What did you say June?"

At the same time, Hama looked around and noticed Azula's absence, "Hey, where did the princess go?" She asked aloud, drawing the attention of the group to another mystery. June, however, disregarded the princess's lack of presence in place of a far more serious issue, "We need to get out here now! It's here!"

Before anyone could react, June was suddenly pierced through the left side of her chest, from behind, by the blade of some invisible entity. Jolting from the sudden pain while releasing a quick gasp of surprise, the bounty hunter, at first, was as startled by the incredibly abrupt blow as those near her. But then, a second blade made its way through the right side of her trunk and lifted her, screaming, high off the ground.

"JUNE!" Iroh cried.

Jumping out from behind a nearby sloping mound of earth, Azula started to rapidly fire explosive bolts of electricity at seemingly aimless targets around the group of humans, causing additional panic and confusion to the chaos already at hand. However, as the attacks landed, strange and loud inhuman utterances echoed through the air and two noticeably moving translucent silhouettes emerged from within the vicinity, alerting the collection of benders and warriors to their masked presence.

"Look! There's something else here!" Piandao yelled, unsheathing his sword.

Iroh, however, retained his focus on the stricken bounty hunter, "JUNE!" He screamed again before briskly moving closer towards her hanging body. As he approached, Iroh noticed the outline of another translucent silhouette standing underneath June. But before he could get too close to it, a mysterious projectile of blue energy formed and quickly shot out from its frame, landing at Iroh's feet and creating an explosion that vigorously blew back the general's body.

"Iroh!" Aang yelled as he rushed to the general's aide. June, meanwhile, gagged from an increasing loss of oxygen and convulsed from the pain surging through her body. Progressively, she felt her body begin to go limp and soon her world went dark.

Azula continued her rapid assault, but even as she fired a storm of violent lightning bolts into the area, the two translucent figures that she aimed for nimbly dodged the explosive attacks with quick grace. Sensing futility, Azula paused briefly to turn her attention to her fellow humans, "RUN!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

Hama fearfully left without hesitation and a similarly terrified Jet joined behind her. While Piandao bravely stayed behind to help Aang aid the recovering Iroh, Azula sent forth a final barrage of lightning bolts before she too made a hasty retreat in the direction of the others. As Piandao helped Iroh to his feet, Aang provided cover for their collective escape by generating a series of air blades, with repeated thrusts of his staff-glider, at the two approaching translucent figures. Another blast of energy was fired by one of the figures and struck the body of Aang's staff-glider, breaking apart the weapon and knocking the airbender off his feet from its barraging force. Vulnerable now and fearing for his life, Aang quickly stumbled to his feet and scurried away to join the retreating Iroh and Piandao.

Frantically running through the remaining jungle behind Iroh, Piandao, and Azula, just a few feet ahead, Aang noticed glowing spectrums of red light tag his shoulder and random areas around him in the markings of three small but vivid red dots formed in a triangle. Instinct quickly told Aang to evade the light and the airbender dodged around the collection of trees in the area so as to lose his targeting. Before he knew it, a hail of energy blasts began to violently barrage the vicinity around him and the others as they made their dash for survival.

"GO, GO, GO, GO!" Aang yelled excitably, using his arms as cover from the flying debris.

A panting Hama came to a quick stop when she saw the land suddenly end at an edge which overlooked a plunging waterfall. Naturally hesitant to make a leap of faith down the steep depths of the cliff and into the surging, white waters of the collecting pool below, the old woman was soon joined by Jet, who also halted at the sight of the daunting drop down the waterfall. But then, hearing the approaching sounds of explosions behind them, the two glanced at each other nervously and then back down at the waterfall. With a loud cry, Jet pushed himself off the cliff edge and Hama, reluctantly, followed suit.

Azula arrived in time to see the old woman throw herself off the cliff and into the waterfall below. Realizing what her own next move was to be, the princess briefly peered over the edge of land, to inspect the body of water beneath, before she made a graceful diver's jump. Piandao, a fully recuperated Iroh and Aang came closely behind and, with adrenaline already rushing, hurdled themselves unreservedly over the cliff and down the waterfall.

The water was colder than Aang expected when he made his hard splash into the waterfall's collecting pool and the initial strength of its surge allowed some of the water to leak into his nose. Nevertheless, he was content with reaching some form of momentary safety and, after resurfacing, he earnestly swam to reach a small bank near the base of the waterfall. He was the last one to reach its shore and, breathless from the nerve-wracking gauntlet of survival, Aang staggered his cold, wet body into the mouth of a nearby cave where the rest of his companions were resting. A distraught and winded Iroh, standing next to Piandao, sighed deeply and ran his hand across his face, "June. I can't believe it…another life lost." He muttered solemnly. An empathetic Piandao placed his hand on his friend's shoulder to offer a quiet sense of support.

While Aang also wanted to console Iroh, as the general had done for him earlier, he felt a pressing issue needed to be addressed first, "Azula!" The Avatar loudly exclaimed. The princess was standing further down the cave. After losing her topknot binder in the rough waves of the waterfall, she had been engaged in a laborious wringing of her long, unbound hair which was drenched with excess water. But at the rough-sounding call of her name, she turned a bothered gaze onto Aang, "What?" She replied.

"Why did you hide yourself back there?" Aang sternly asked.

With haughty eyes, Azula quietly looked at Aang and then turned her face away to continue wringing out her hair. An incensed Aang fumed and he quickly bended some water out of Jet's nearby wet clothes and threw the mass at Azula's head, wetting both the princess and her beloved hair all over again, "Hey, I asked you a question!" He bellowed. The Avatar's actions birthed a new suspense within the cave that temporarily numbed the earlier memories of escape and mourning. Azula removed the long, dampened hair that covered her face to reveal an angered visage cleverly hidden by a mask of composure, "Bravo, you finally show some initiative, Avatar! You want to know why I hid back at that death camp? It was for a simple reason: I needed to know what I was up against and now…I do."

Aang narrowed his eyebrows, "I knew it! You _knew_ that place was going to be a trap, didn't you? But you advised us to go there anyway! We were all nothing but bait to you. That's why you hid and waited for those things to strike!"

Azula clapped her hands, "Congratulations, it only took you till after the fact to figure it out. At least bounty hunter-girl had enough brains to notice it from the start; almost ruined the plan too."

An infuriated Jet unsheathed his hook swords threateningly, "You piece of Fire Nation trash, first you toy with our lives and now, another person is dead because of you! I should've known better than to trust your kind!" He snarled. Azula didn't even flinch, "Funny, just this morning _you_ were ready to kill her."

Jet gritted his teeth, "Yeah, WELL IT AIN'T THIS MORNING ANYMORE NOW, IS IT!" He angrily yelled.

Azula crossed her arms and sighed, "Look, if it makes everybody happy, bounty hunter-girl didn't die in vain."

"Why? So we could find out, first-hand, how those things want to kill us!" The freedom fighter answered back.

"No. We found out that there's more than one of them, that they use projectile and energy-based weapons, they have some kind of cloaking device, and that they're bigger, stronger, and heavier than us. In times of war you need to learn about your enemy before you can defeat them; bounty hunter-girl was just another casualty." Azula replied.

"That still does not excuse putting innocent lives in danger!" Iroh suddenly spoke out in anger.

Azula narrowed her eyes, "And just who exactly is innocent, uncle? Don't try to paint me as the guilty one only; I _saw_ that look you gave when you looked upon that tied-up creature back in that camp. _You_ know what these things are, don't you? Yet you haven't said a word!"

The focus of the cave then shifted to Iroh, who stood with a shamed face at Azula's statement. Taking a deep sigh he then opened his mouth to speak, "Many years ago, a strange report reached the Fire Nation war council from a survivor of an important siege against a strong guerilla army in the northern Earth Kingdom. This survivor was part of a special force team of twelve men comprised from the cream of the crop of the Fire Nation military, veteran warriors who each held an elite firebender skill near Fire Lord level. I would know, since I was the one who originally trained them. While the survivor and his team were successful in eradicating the guerrillas, each man in the survivor's team was slaughtered systematically by some mysterious creature lurking in the forests. Its description, according to the report by the survivor, matched the features of the creature that we saw back at that camp. The survivor told of how this creature used a cloaking device, similar to the ones used by those creatures at the camp, to mask its presence and he learned that the it saw the world through the body heat of organisms. He was able to cloak his own thermal signature by using wet mud to cover his body and it was this tactic that eventually led him to defeat the creature."

Piandao rubbed his chin, "Interesting…so these creatures, they have been to the Four Nations before?" He spoke.

Iroh nodded, "Yes; 'hunting' once again, no doubt."

Jet gave a snort from his nose, "Well, at least now we _know_ these things can be killed."

"It's not going to be that easy…" Azula remarked, "…if eleven out of twelve legitimate warriors can't even kill _one_ of those things, how do you think the six of us will fare against _three_?"

The strong reality of Azula's statement created an uneasy silence within the cave. Opening his mouth, Aang decided to break it, "We need to keep moving guys; those…'predators' are still out there looking for us and if we stop running, we're as good as dead. Let's get back into the jungle, where we have more cover, and establish some type of perimeter first. We can figure out things from there."

Standing near the outside of the cave, Hama noticed a small, flying shadow grace across her body. She looked out and saw the frame of what seemed like a bird, against the bright daylight, circling the sky above the cave entrance. Then, as abruptly as it came, the bird left; flying away into the jungle above the waterfall. Piandao had joined beside the old woman in time to witness the bird's departure and Hama commented on the brief incident, "Strange, I've never seen a hawk hover so low before." She spoke.

"You're right madam, because that was no hawk. Only falcons exhibit that type of behavior." He replied back.

Hundreds of feet above them, the silver, metallic body of the "falcon" glistened in the light of the sun as it flew back to its master. Soaring under the shade of a tree, the falcon landed on the rough, outstretched forearm of the Falconer Predator and relayed glowing, three-dimensional, red holograms from its body that depicted a cave-like geographical structure and a corresponding mapping route. Behind the Falconer Predator, two of its fellow cohorts deactivated their cloaking devices and stared intriguingly at the images projecting from the falcon.

…TO BE CONTINUED…

**Again, I must apologize for the long update to this story. Keep in mind that I'm quite the busy person so I have many time constraints. Still though, I have this story in the back of my mind and you can always expect an update within one to two weeks until its completion. Again, thanks for the reviews, they are always appreciated. God bless! -ND


	5. Part 5

PREDATORS: THE AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VERSION!

Part 5

Silence. That was all that could be heard throughout the wild landscape as the six remaining humans sat scattered around each other within another remote recess of the jungle. Tired both physically and mentally, the group struggled to find comfort in the remaining strength of their shortened number while keeping their senses alert to everything moving in their surroundings. Sitting down on a hard mound of earth while staring vacantly into the sky, a weary Jet slowly opened his mouth to speak, "You know…if we make it back home, I swear I'm going to eat _so many_ wild mushrooms. I'm going to blow up _so many_ Fire Nation villages too. I'll look up at the sky and say, 'Man, its sunset already? Looks like it's time to blow up some Fire Nation villages.' Yep, if there's one thing that this ordeal has taught me, it's that life is short; so you got to enjoy the little things, you know what I mean?" He asked.

Hama was the person closest to Jet and the target of his question as she sat on the grassy earth near the freedom fighter's feet, "Yes, of course…" She responded uneasily, attempting to humor Jet, "…nothing like sunsets and blowing up Fire Nation villages to make you appreciate life!" Hama spoke. Taking his eyes off the old woman after her reply, Jet returned his stare to the heavens and formed a soft smile as he entered into a daydreaming state, "Hmm...yeah."

Hama, however, stood up and briskly walked away from the detached Jet to share a seat beside a meditative Iroh on a wide tree stump nearby.

"You should stay away from him." Iroh uttered without opening his eyes.

"Yeah." Hama answered back quickly.

It was a crude defensive perimeter, if one could even consider it a defensive perimeter at all, but it was all that Aang and his fellow survivors could do at the current moment, given their lack of resources and scarce time. Resting his back, as best his could, against the rough bark of a felled tree, Aang tried to quell his tense nerves by basking in the serenity of the quiet, surrounding nature. While the airbender had initially formed the idea for the strategy that the humans now employed, it was Iroh and Azula, the two military experts of the group, who had further developed the tactic. The random lodging of the group in the middle of the jungle was part of a ploy, devised by the two firebenders, to draw the hunters towards the group; as if the humans were seemingly holed up and helpless. When the hunters would reach a certain point, the remaining benders would then use their abilities to attack and trap them in an overlapping field of destruction by the elements, "Whatever these things are, wherever they came from, we're going to kill them all." Iroh last noted, with a cold determination in his voice, before the group had left the cave to head into the jungle.

The plan seemed good and Aang was thankful for at least part of the burden of leadership to have been released from his shoulders, even if it only was temporary. Taking a deep breath, the Avatar then closed his eyes and began a momentary, uneasy respite under the shade of the dense tree branches above him.

"Hey Avatar, you mind taking a nap when you're _not_ in charge of an important assault?" Azula remarked from nearby. Just barely about a foot away from Aang, the princess was sitting in her own secluded position, supporting her back against the body of another large, felled tree in the area, when she so happened to observe the young airbender at rest. Despite her recent contribution, Aang still couldn't fully forgive the princess's callous jeopardizing of the group's safety from earlier, an act which resulted in June's death. Her arrogant attitude wasn't helping to change his previously established feelings of negativity towards her either, "Leave me alone Azula. I have nothing to say to you." He responded defensively without even opening his eyes or turning his head.

Giving off a grin, Azula shook her head and then brushed back a few long strands of the dry, unbound hair that had managed to creep into her face, "Still angry I see. No matter. I'm not here to make friends or apologize for anything anyway. I do what I have to do to survive and in case you haven't noticed Avatar, that's what life and this whole game preserve is about: survival of the fittest."

At that statement, Aang finally opened his eyes and looked on at Azula with a probing stare, "You know, there's something I've always wanted to ask you: what happened to you that made you so coldhearted? Why can't you value the lives of others?" He asked. The random yet candid question somehow managed to appeal to the depths of Azula's soul and drew the princess's attention away from the preserve momentarily. She gave off a listless snort from her nose before turning her gaze away from Aang and staring blankly into the space ahead of her, "Mercy is overrated Avatar, just ask Zuko." Azula replied back dryly. The disconcerting response left Aang's curiosity unsatisfied and he attempted to continue the conversation. But before his voice could come out, a strange screeching noise echoed through the air from outside the perimeter and alerted everyone.

Quickly, Aang got to his feet and, crouching low, he scurried across the short terrain within the perimeter toward the direction of the sound. Taking cover behind the long, thick body of an outsized, moss-covered log, the Avatar peered into the distance of the jungle along with the rest of the group who had followed him. There, in the obscure depths of trees, a visible blur was seen moving rapidly in the shadows.

"Why doesn't it attack?" Piandao inquired.

"Could it be aware of our trap?" Iroh added.

The questions remained unanswered as the six sets of human eyes kept their gazes locked on the jungle. In the midst of the bewilderment, an idea managed to enter into Aang's head as he stared into the open, tropical scenery, "Guys, I think I just came up with something." He stated before turning his attention to Hama who was close beside him, "Hama, I'm going to have to ask a very special and important favor from you."

The old woman panted hard as she dodged the collection of trees in her path. She could hear the footsteps of another being, in hot pursuit, closing in on her from somewhere behind and she desperately widened her tiring stride as a terrified result. Hama didn't know what was worse, the fact that she was being used as bait or the fact that she was even considered for the job despite being old and a lady, "What's…the world…coming to?" She gasped between breaths while dashing across the chaotic landscape. An audible, inhuman screech from behind made the old woman's heart jump in the middle of her sprint, "ANYTIME NOW!" Hama anxiously yelled at the top of her lungs.

From their distance behind the log, Aang and the rest of his companions watched the scene with similar anxiety as Hama ran around the jungle before them, "Are you following her, Azula?" The airbender asked as he crouched next to the Fire Nation princess, holding back his nerves. The princess, with one eye closed and the other focused intently on the old woman's moving body, held out her right arm while her left hand clasped around the forearm of her right arm for support. Sitting on one knee with the two fingers of her right arm extended, Azula, like a sniper, anticipated the correct moment to strike, "She's in my sight." The princess responded shortly.

"I'm starting to see it better now; it's catching up to her!" Piandao cried in anxiety.

Iroh, with growing concern, turned a nervous eye on his niece, "Azula…" He muttered softly.

"Relax uncle." The princess calmly replied.

Hama could feel her body reaching its limit and soon her tired leg muscles began to tense under the excessive amount of stress. What speed she had left in her old body quickly departed with each difficult step that she made until finally, to Hama's horror, the large shadow of her pursuer overcastted her smaller frame from behind. The next thing Hama knew, the shrill, cracking noise of a bolt of energy thundered behind her followed by the corresponding thud of a body. Recognizing what had just happened, the old woman abruptly ended her stride and leaned over to grasp her knees in exhaustion.

"The firebender got it!" Jet yelled ecstatically.

Iroh took a sigh of relief at the view and looked over to his right to see a similarly relieved Aang wipe the sweat from his forehead while a more composed Azula, gazing at the sight with a quiet confidence, lowered her arm gently as she knelt beside the airbender. Not wanting to waste any more time than he should, Aang quickly turned his attention to his comrades, "Alright everyone, let's head over there!" He exclaimed before he jumped over the log and hastily led the advance into the jungle.

Hama was already standing next to body of her former pursuer, observing it with a mixture of curiosity and repulsion, when Aang and the others approached and took sight of their downed target as well. It was another otherworldly creature. While vaguely similar to the one that they had seen back at the camp—due to its lofty height and lean, muscular frame—what far distinguished the creature was its oblong-shaped, insect-like head and disproportionate, naked body. The creature's hairless, grayish skin was moistened with a thin, mucus-like film and crawling with insects as it lay sprawled on the ground.

"Where are the other two?" Jet asked anxiously.

Iroh shook his head, "This isn't what attacked us back at the camp. This is something else."

"What makes you so sure? It's not we actually _saw_ any of them." The freedom fighter retorted.

Iroh locked eyes with Jet, "Those creatures had weapons, _this_ creature is obviously unarmed. Besides, if those other creatures were bold enough to kill off two of our number, it wouldn't make sense for them to waste time running around in the jungle like this…'thing' did, whatever it is." The general responded practically.

Aang nodded slowly, convinced of the general's observation, "Iroh's right, this _is_ some other creature. Either way, that was a good shot you made Azula."

Azula however, didn't respond immediately. Her focus was on a singed, fist-like hole that rested high up on the body of a tree near the mysterious creature's carcass, the mark of a lightning bolt. She then turned a troubled gaze on the Avatar, "I missed."

Aang returned the princess's uncommon stare with confusion, "What?" He asked.

Azula pointed to the blemish on the tree that she had just observed, "I didn't shoot this creature. Someone or _something_ else did." She replied. Before Azula's disturbing words had time to sink in, a wispy yet loud voice echoed throughout the vicinity, _"Over here…"_

The sudden sound startled the group of benders and warriors and they quickly took battle stances in response. Eyeing their surroundings in hostility, the group could find no trace of movement in the area. Again the voice echoed, _"…over here…"_ Causing each person to jolt toward whatever direction they thought the noise had come. Right as he stared into some unknown distance, Aang suddenly heard a strange noise, which sounded like a soft shifting of mechanical gears, emerge from behind him, _"…turn around."_ The voice whispered. With a slow apprehension, Aang obeyed the command and twisted his body to face a translucent figure standing in front of him. As soon as he did this, vivid sparks of energy flew forth from the figure and faded the translucence from its body, revealing a tall, hefty individual who wielded, what looked like to Aang, a small cannon, with the both of its hands.

A strangely designed helmet—somewhat similar to the kind that the Avatar had seen on Fire Nation soldiers— masked the head and facial features of the figure while a unique yet haggard set of fitted, darkly-hued clothes, including faded black boots and gloves, adorned the rest of the figure's body. In an attempt to quell his inner maelstrom of fear, anxiety and inquisitiveness, Aang looked upon the imposing face mask of the figure and uttered a few simple words, "What…are you?"

The figure paused momentarily after the question then took one hand away from its cannon and used it to remove the helmet from its head. To Aang and the rest of his company's surprise, the face of an ordinary, middle-aged human male was exposed, "I'm alive." The man answered calmly. Stunned, the group of humans remained speechless as they stared incredulously at the unanticipated identity of the new stranger.

The man continued, "You talk too loud…" He then inhaled deeply, "…smelled you since you got here. If _I_ can smell you, if _I_ can hear you…" He then drifted off momentarily and raised his eyes to look around the treetops, "…_they_ can too."

The collection of benders and warriors still remained in their catatonic stupor as they gawked upon the mysterious man. The man, unfazed by the dumbfounded looks of his fellow humans, resumed talking casually, "Storm coming soon. This way…" He then turned and slowly started to walk away in an unknown direction.

"Wait!" Azula's voice finally spoke up.

The man, having barely taken a step, abruptly stopped and turned his body toward the Fire Nation princess. Looking at the man square in the eye, Azula then released her question, "Who are you?"

The man responded by first removing his empty gaze from the princess and then looking around the jungle treetops suspiciously, a sing-song tone slowly emerging from his lips, "_Noland, run away, live to fight another day_…" He softly uttered before giving an abrupt pause, appropriately earning strange looks from the group for the initial, odd response. The man then went on to finalize his reply in a normal voice, "…I'm the one that got away."

Aang silently watched as the man slowly turned and disappeared into the bushes, after the statement. Jet, however, ran a nervous glance across his comrades, "Think we can trust him?" The freedom fighter asked aloud.

Iroh was the first to reply, "What do we have to lose? He killed this creature for us, he has some of the hunters' technology and it looks like he also has shelter too." The general then turned his attention to the Avatar, "Aang?"

Up to the point of Iroh's call, the airbender still had his sights set on the bushes. He then looked over his right shoulder to respond to the general standing behind him, "Like you said, what do we have to lose?" He answered, shortly before he began to walk in the man's direction. Following the Avatar's rationale, the others, likewise, followed suit and soon the group of benders and warriors found themselves following the lead of the strange, mysterious individual that had suddenly allied himself with them.

For the first time since their arrival on the game preserve, the sky finally began to show signs of twilight as the sun gradually set over the jungle. The journey was long, quiet and dull with no interaction or exchange of words occurring between either the man or the group of benders and warriors that he led. It wasn't until the massive frame of some type of dark, rusty, structure came into the view of Aang and the others, that the group felt another resurgence of awe and wonder stir their spirits once again.

"Incredible…" Iroh uttered as he and the others walked closer toward the structure, "…it's about as big as a palace!" He exclaimed. The man led the group through an open entranceway in the structure and stopped short of a few yards into the darkening depths of the structure's metallic, mechanical bowels. Raising one hand toward the low the ceiling, the man opened up the metal covering of a shaft and then proceeded his way through the new opening. The Avatar and his crew followed suit and by the time Piandao finalized the last of their number through the opening, the man had already begun to move ahead of the group. Crawling through the deeper, darker and narrower depths of the dusty and dank shaft, the man stopped midway and shone a bright light, on the group behind him, from a small box that he carried in his hand, "Come on, this way!" He uttered.

After the man removed the light from them, the group was left marveling at the device the man wielded. "What kind of powerful torch is that?" Jet questioned in admiration, echoing the sentiments of his peers. "What about all these cords of rubber? I've never seen so many in my life." Hama remarked of the hundreds upon hundreds of hanging or strewn wires and cords, either thin or thick, which surrounded the inside of the shaft. Despite his own inner wonder and bemusement, Aang kept his focus, "Save the questions for later guys. We need to keep moving." He spoke before following the lead of the man once again. Sighing, Azula made a final comment as her fellow cohorts moved around her, "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder."

After moving through the body of the shaft, the man then led the collection of benders and warriors through a dark tunnel which, despite being higher and more spacious than the shaft, forced its passengers to crouch low due to its short ceiling. "My friend, what is this strange place?" Iroh finally popped the question as the humans moved down the long tunnel. "This is a drill supply that they left behind. The machine is dead, but the power source isn't." The man replied.

The tunnel eventually narrowed in width and grew in height to the point that it resembled a normal hallway. Relieved to be standing erect once more, the Avatar watched as the man made an abrupt turn to his left and entered an opening there in the wall. Peering into the dark depths of the opening, Aang heard a click followed by the low humming of an engine. The next thing he knew, the depths were illuminated by a hazy, amber-colored light and he was able to see the contents within. With the man crouching next to the opening, he ushered Aang inside and the young airbender followed along with the rest of his companions.

Setting aside his cannon, helmet, gloves and the worn black garb that he wore on his upper body, the man waited till the last person came through the opening and appropriately shut the opening with a heavy, metallic slab that lay on the wall beside it. Upon first observation of the spacious yet faded and messy room, Jet made his feelings openly known, "Wow, what a dump. You actually live here?" The freedom fighter insensitively asked.

"Oh no, no…" The man began as he moved away from the closed opening to stand next to the freedom fighter, his beige-colored shirt hugging his aged but still well built physique, "…this is my summer home, I winter in the Riviera. The schools are so much nice there, and the men…" He looked Jet up and down, "…ooh la, la. By the way, you're welcome." He finally muttered, underscoring his sarcastic tone. Moving away from the freedom fighter, the man approached a small pot resting atop a makeshift counter and stirred the contents within with a nearby utensil.

"How have you survived here?" Iroh inquired of the man.

Stopping short of his stir, the man turned a weary gaze on the general and answered him appropriately, "Salvaging what I can, when I can, from _whatever_ I can."

Situating themselves in and around the room, the group took rest wherever they could find. Aang sat on a short, metallic projection jutting up from the floor near the man. "Oh…" The man spoke to Aang, taking his attention off his pot as if he suddenly remembered something, "…the name's Noland…Ronald…Air Cav. They uh... drop you guys in too?" He asked, a smile forming on his pocketed, tired-looking face.

Aang, looking at Noland, nodded accordingly, "Yeah."

Noland gave a deep snicker that caused his shoulders to move up and down, "Now you, _you_ have got to be the youngest-looking thing that they've ever brought down here, human _or_ alien. I mean, talk about a record breaker! World must be getting pretty bad if they're sending in kids now." He then gave a chuckle in between, "What were you like Hitler Jr. or something?"

The airbender narrowed his eyebrows, "Uh…I don't know who that is, but I'm actually the Avatar."

The mirth suddenly left Noland's face, "The Ava-who?" He questioned, wrinkling his brow like Aang had just done. Aang gave Noland an incredulous look, "The Avatar. You know, the person who can manipulate all the elements and is supposed to bring balance to the world during their lifetime?"

Noland stared blankly at Aang.

"You have to know of the Avatar. He's been living in an existence of reincarnation for thousands of years!" Hama spoke from her seated position, on a bench-like structure, nearby.

"Lady, _that_ is ridiculous. I have never heard of such a thing in my life." Noland replied bluntly.

"Are you really serious? What world are you from?" Piandao joked half-heartedly. Noland, however, didn't perceive it, "What world are _you_ from?" He retorted back with a straight face. The swordsman gave his fellow man a confused, disbelieving look after the question, "Uh, the Four Nations of course?"

Noland raised an eyebrow, "What is that the new name for the UN or something?"

"What's the UN?" Aang asked.

Furrowing his eyebrows, Noland looked at the airbender and then at the rest of his companions to see if they were truly being serious. When he could find no sign of insincerity in any of their faces, the former soldier chuckled to himself and wagged his right index finger in the air as he sat down, next to his pot, on another floor projection, "The drop…it had to have been _the drop_. After all, it is quite a rush; easily can mess up your head." He then hummed to himself a melody that Aang and his group had never heard, earning him more strange looks from the group.

Jet, meanwhile, managed to get his hand on something that had caught his eye while he sat on the ground: a flat, flexible piece of metal consisting of two parts which were chained together, at the fringes, to form a vest-like piece of armor. As he loudly banged on the surface of the metal plate to test its durability, he got Noland's attention, "Hey—yeah, yeah I'll tell him!" He broke his speech pattern to address an invisible entity, across the room, before returning his attention back to Jet, "Hey uh…'Enter the Dragon' you want to put that down? Some people around here are really meticulous about other people messing with their stuff."

Grudgingly, the freedom fighter dropped the vest without a word. Noland, on the other hand, resumed the stirring of his pot as he was sitting while also continuing to talk, "It's very important though; disrupts the heat signature. Gift from one of those things, out there, that got a taste of its own medicine, if you know what I mean."

The statement caught Aang's attention, "Wait, so you've killed one?"

Noland paused his stirring once again as he thought over the question, "Uh, I've killed two. Maybe three…I can't even remember. Anyway…" He moved his hands away from the pot to address the rest of the group, "…there are two kinds of them out there. They're similar, but they're different. Kind of like the differences between dogs and wolves?"

Aang lowered his brow in confusion, "Uh, you mean polar bear dogs and wolfbats?" He asked.

"What? No I—j-just listen, okay?" Noland retorted, "Now, the larger ones, the ones that are running things up there-" He pointed his index finger upwards for symbolization, "-they hunt the smaller ones. It's some kind of blood feud, I guess; been going on for a long time."

"So they do this just for sport?" Iroh probed.

Noland nodded, "Oh yeah, they bring in fresh meat season after season and I mean things you wouldn't believe! Bring it in and uh…hunt it and kill it, in that order."

"How long have you been here?" An intrigued Jet questioned. Noland gave another short pause as he pondered his response, "Uh…seven seasons, I think." He then turned his head toward the invisible entity that he had addressed earlier, "What? Ten? Man!" He returned his attention back to the group shortly afterwards, "Anyway, every once in a while, one of us kills one of them and let me tell you, that's when they get _real_ interested. See, they learn quickly. They adapt and develop a whole new set of skills. They come back the next season in threes, always in threes. Their armor might have changed, their weapons might have changed, or their tactics might have changed. It's amazing."

Azula rubbed her chin, "So it's like an evolution. They're trying to make themselves into better killers."

Noland nodded, "Mmm hmm."

"And you said that they come back, how?" Azula added.

"They got a ship." Noland responded.

The princess narrowed her eyes, "A ship?"

"Yeah, its thirty yards from their camp." Noland replied. He then looked in the direction of the invisible entity once again and chuckled hard, "I told you they wouldn't see it. I told you."

Iroh lowered his eyebrows, "Wait a minute, you were there at the camp?"

Noland looked at the general, "Mmm hmm."

"My friend, you could've helped us!" Iroh spoke reprovingly. The statement, however, caused Noland to exchange a brooding stare at the general to which Iroh, in order to remain at peace with his new host, looked away from. Azula, however, casually resumed the conversation with Noland, "How do we kill them?" She asked candidly.

Taking his eyes off the general, Noland looked to the ground, "Anyway you can."

"They must have some type of weakness." Piandao spoke.

Noland shook his head, "Not many. You want to survive? You dig in deep. You stay hid."

Jet gave a frown, "Yeah well we're going with door number two. How do we get off this preserve?" He asked. Noland sighed and picked up his gaze from the floor, "Ten seasons…" He spoke to himself reminiscently, "…first two seasons—no, three seasons that I was here, I was walking in the same direction; trying to reach the edge of the preserve." Noland then began another bout of wheezing laughter before he abruptly managed to stop himself, "Let me tell you something…there _ain't_ no edge of the preserve."

A somber-faced Azula gazed sternly at Noland as she stood next to her uncle, "Maybe you and your 'friend' want to tell me about that ship?" She spoke.

Noland nonchalantly returned the Fire Nation princess's critical stare, "Let's see, that's a—that's a brilliant idea. Brilliant! The whole time I've been here it _never_ occurred to me to uh…commandeer that alien spacecraft. But I wouldn't know how to fly it." He turned toward the direction of the invisible entity, "_He_ would. But of course, _you_ know how to fly it?"

Azula kept her face, "I'll give it a shot." She responded confidently.

Snickering, Noland then stood up, "Well, I'm going to get some sleep." He then leaned in closer to the nearby Avatar and lowered his voice tone, "No noise. They're out there. They're _always_ out there." Noland then pointed away to a corner of the room, "Water over there." He then gestured to the pot that he was stirring earlier, "Help yourself… all of you." With that said, the former soldier turned away, leapt over a short platform nearby and laid himself in the depths of a deep crevice at the corner of the room.

With nothing but time on their hands now, the group was left to enjoy what was offered by Noland's simple hospitality. Piandao further observed the room and took to note the various weaponry that were displayed throughout, some of strange origin and resembling the cannon that Noland possessed, while others were more familiar to the swordsman's knowledge, "Oh my…these creatures have been hunting humans for far longer than I originally expected." He remarked with a tone of admiration as he came to a corner of the room that had many swords, spears and other ancient weapons of the Four Nations resting on the wall.

Jet, walking up behind the swordsman, had managed to overhear Piandao's words as he approached, "Why are you getting so excited over a bunch of antiques, firebender?" He spoke. Piandao, kneeling down to grasp and unsheathe a random sword, in order to inspect its cleaned, shiny blade, responded without turning his head toward Jet, "These weapons couldn't be less than three to four centuries old, each forged in the ancient designs of the people of their respective nations: Earth Kingdom clubs, water tribe spears, Air Nomad staffs and Fire Nation swords like this. Granted this isn't the Four Nations, but still, finding such archaic weapons in existence and prime condition is beyond remarkable!"

The indifferent freedom fighter took an uninterested look at the mass of weapons and then gave a snort of his nose, "Hey firebender, don't think that anything has changed between me and you." He snidely spoke.

Piandao turned an astonished gaze on Jet, "We're being hunted by bloodthirsty creatures on a strange, unknown world that is possibly unfathomably distant from our own and you're _still_ harboring a grudge against me?" He asked. Jet boldly leaned his body closer toward the kneeling Piandao, "What part of 'I hate firebenders' don't you understand?" He sneered before walking away from the incredulous swordsman.

"But, I'm not even..." Piandao weakly managed to utter.

Iroh and Hama sat beside each other on one of the many bench-like structures within the room. Reaching into his garment, Iroh managed to pull out a small sheet of folded paper and then proceeded to open it, at one corner, with a careful pinch of his left finger and thumb. Hama's curiosity was aroused when she saw the portrait of a young man displayed on the open face of the paper, "Who's that?" She asked.

Smiling, Iroh looked at Hama and handed her the portrait, "That is my son, Lu Ten. He was my only child. Sadly, he passed away many years ago." The general replied. Hama turned a surprised gaze on Iroh as she received the picture, "Oh no. I'm so sorry." She spoke empathetically. Iroh gave a nod, "It's quite alright. So is the nature of life." He retorted calmly, giving a brief pause before taking the conversation in a new direction, "So Hama, you say that you work as an innkeeper, right?" He asked. Hama nodded, "That's right."

Iroh then gave another smile, "So how does a beautiful woman like you stay single?"

At the question, Hama blushed red and began to giggle. Azula, meanwhile, watched her uncle flirt with his elderly counterpart, across the room, from her seat atop a short platform fused to the wall. "Disgusting…" She muttered underneath her breath before turning her gaze away. Arms folded and legs crossed, the princess sat conservatively, as trained by her royal upbringing, while she rested her back against the metallic surface of the wall behind her.

Almost as soon as she took her eyes away from her uncle, Azula noticed the Avatar walking in her direction, carrying a metal can in one hand and metal dish in the other. He stopped in front of the princess and handed her the metal can. Somewhat taken aback by the kind gesture, Azula nonetheless received the can and Aang sat next to her.

"A 'thanks' would be nice." He spoke while using the spoon in his plate to stir around the porridge-like food, from Noland's pot, which he had just served himself.

"Water's warm." Azula replied after taking a sip from the can.

Aang gave a smile and took in a scoop from his plate. While he knew that he may never understand the princess, he had gained a better tolerance of her and that was all that really mattered at this point, "You know what Azula? You were right." He spoke after taking a soft gulp of his food.

The princess looked at Aang with a raised eyebrow, "About?"

Aang took another bite from his plate, swallowed and then looked Azula in the eye, "About me being here. I abandoned the world at the most crucial moment in the history of the Four Nations because I was selfish, I didn't want to live up to my destiny. Now, because of my actions, I'm responsible for the deaths of countless of people. I killed them. This game preserve is only appropriate for me; for all of us…" He then paused and cast his gaze downwards, "…It all makes sense. I finally get it now, why we were chosen. It's because we're predators, just like those creatures outside. We were the monsters of our own world. It's probably better that we never go back."

Azula took another sip of water from her can and gave a relieved sigh as the water hydrated her throat despite its warmth, "Oh _I am _going back. I'm going after that ship." She stated.

The Avatar stared at Azula, "But you wouldn't even know how to pilot it."

The princess nodded, "True. But that thing strung up at the camp might know. My guess is that it would do anything to get free. Enemy of my enemy, you know?" Azula responded.

Aang shook his head, "That doesn't make it a friend either." He spoke. Just as he finished his sentence, a strange aroma caught Aang's nostrils and drew his attention. Taking two curious sniffs, the Avatar then quickly looked over to Azula with furrowed eyebrows, "Smoke?" He spoke questioningly, a slight sense of alarm underscoring his tone. The Avatar's random yet disturbing words caused the princess to display a similarly puzzled look on her own face. But before she could test the air with her own nose, Aang hastily placed his dish aside and sniffed the air again, fully recognizing the smell the second time, "Smoke!" He loudly yelled as he stood up straight. Aang's voice caught the attention of the others in the room just as visible palls of smoke began to enter the room.

"SMOKE!" Aang yelled again as a pandemonium began to erupt in the room.

Immediately, the airbender rushed toward the closed entrance from which he, Noland and the others had emerged from and pressed against the slab, used to cover the entrance, with all his might. Aang found that it was sealed tight and immovable. He looked back at the anxiously gathered benders and warriors behind him with a similarly fearful look, "It's completely shut!" He yelled. Desperately, Jet and Piandao joined in the Avatar's struggle to remove the slab, and the three attempted to uncover the opening collectively but to no avail.

Hama ran over to the crevice where Noland was last seen taking rest and was surprised to find no one there, "Where's Noland?" She asked loudly. At Hama's question, a sudden epiphany struck Piandao as he, Aang and Jet withdrew from the impregnable, sealed entrance. The assortment of weapons around the room, Noland's admitted method of survival and his rescuing of the group from the jungle were all signs of deeper, ulterior motives that had suddenly manifested themselves, "Noland is the one responsible for this! He's a scavenger and he wants all that we possess! He's trying to kill us!" The swordsman cried.

With the room becoming increasingly foggier and the amount of oxygen gradually depleting, Aang took another mode of action. Moving his arms in a fast, orchestrated, circular rhythm, the airbender began to gather the amount of smoke in the room into a single source, "Quick everyone, start looking for another way out! I don't know where the smoke is coming from and I can only gather so much of it in this room before it starts to overtake us!" The airbender cried as the mass of gathered smoke steadily began to increase in size. In the ensuing chaos, the benders and warriors began scurrying across the room, frantically searching across the walls, corners and crevices of the room in a collective attempt to find some type of exit. Nervous droplets of sweat began to run down Aang's brow as the ball of smoke that he had created grew to more than twice his size and was becoming increasingly difficult to manipulate in the closed room. Small palls of smoke began to diffuse from the ball and into the room once again, causing the trapped humans to start to cough and hack from its growing presence.

In the middle of her search for an exit, Azula managed to overhear the sound of a familiar voice coming from a discrete, inconspicuous area of the room. There, hidden behind a twisted barrier of metal bars that closed off a small hole in the wall, Noland was seen arguing with his imaginary friend as plumes of smoke sifted through the bars from a fire supply beside him, "See the mess that you got us into man? Six more-_six more_ mouths to feed! I can barely stand living with you!" He yelled.

Immediately, the princess approached the hole and caught Noland's attention as she came near, "What?" The former soldier taunted as Azula stopped short of about a foot from the hole. Igniting the two hands, at her side, with a violent aura of blue flame, Azula donned a merciless scowl in response, "Everybody get down!" She bellowed to the benders and warriors behind her. In a mixture of awe, wonder and fear, Noland witnessed the incredible sight before his eyes, "How the—what did she-" He stammered softly.

The former soldier never had time to finish as Azula's voice came out louder and stronger than his own, "SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR FRIEND!" She yelled before thrusting her arms forward and releasing the flames from her hands in two large, point-blank fireballs. Noland managed to collect his senses in time to dodge the attacks moments before impact, "YOU'RE IN MY HOUSE!" He cried before running away from the hole.

The fireballs hit the area and caused an explosion that violently rattled the room and echoed as far as the outside of the drill supply. The walls surrounding the hole still remained intact, however, and the smoke that Noland had created from his fire supply continued to sift in.

"Yeah that worked well firebender! You didn't open up anything!" Jet yelled.

"I wasn't trying to, idiot. I'm calling in the 'cavalry'." Azula replied.

Outside in the jungle, one of the Super Predators stood up in alarm over the sudden echo that had reverberated from the drill supply in the far distance. Both he and his comrades had been following the trail of their human prey and up to this point, they had thought that they had lost them. The sound from the abandoned drill supply, however, had provided a curious, new lead. Immediately, the Tracker Predator used the technology within his face mask to scan the towering body of the drill supply as its dark façade arched over the similarly blackened, moonlit depths of the jungle. His scanner picked up on the presence of heat sources near the drill supply's control center and the Tracker Predator clenched his fists with growing excitement. Quickly, he turned away to recruit his comrades for the new finding. The hunt had resumed.

…TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. Part 6

**So, it seemed like this took forever to make and it definitely kinda did. I deeply apologize for keeping fans of this story waiting for so long. Life tends to shift priorities and interests. But now, I'm glad to present the final chapter in this story…**

PREDATORS: THE AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER VERSION!

Part 6

Noland anxiously scurried through the dark cold bowels of the drill supply. After that last explosion, his plans, shelter—_everything_—had been compromised. Time was running out and if the unstable ex-soldier was to continue his existence, as miserable as it was, he knew that he needed to get as far away from the drill supply as possible. His calculated footsteps led him closer to one of the many exits that he had discovered during his refuge in drill supply, but before he could go any further, the sound of an eerily familiar snarl stopped him dead in his tracks. Despite the faint illumination of the narrow metallic hallway, the acuity of Noland's widening eyes managed to roughly make out the imposing figure of a tall translucent silhouette standing a few feet away from him.

With his heart thumping deep inside his chest, Noland let out a trembling exhale from his nostrils and accepted his fate, "Oh…so you finally found me, huh big dog? Well, what took you so long?" He muttered, just as a triangular laser sight made its way up to his forehead. The last thing that Noland saw was a quick discharge of energy shoot toward him before his entire world went painlessly black. The super predator, undeterred by the gore of Noland's remains, splattered across the corridor, advanced forward on the cleared path as if nothing had happened. A coldhearted focus guided its unhurried footsteps as it sought to reach its other targets in mind.

"Guys, this isn't working! The smoke is about to overtake us!" Aang cried as he struggled to manipulate the enormous circular mass of grey colored smoke with his waving hands. The diffusing smoke from the ball continued to fog the enclosed room, leaving the group in an increasing struggle for clean air. In desperation, Jet quickly moved back to the impregnable sealed exit. Sitting down in front of it, the freedom fighter futilely attempted to use the force of his violently kicking legs to somehow break through the seal, "AH! Let-me-out-of-here-you-stupid—!" The freedom fighter's cry was suddenly cut short when the force of a loud unexpected bang responded from the other side of the seal.

The attention of the humans collectively drew to the sealed exit just as a disturbed Jet hastily moved away. Two more loud bangs hit against the seal from the outside until it was partially knocked open, allowing a narrow crooked breach for escape. Without hesitation, Aang took advantage of the strange yet convenient situation and manipulated the giant form of the smoke ball into a long projecting stream that he sent through the breach. But even while the majority of smoke had left the room, fumes still continued to sift in from Noland's fire supply.

"Well…it looks like they heard the call." Piandao spoke up, staring at the warped form of the breach.

Hama shook her head in confusion, "I-I don't understand. I thought those monsters wanted to kill us?"

Azula responded without even looking at the old woman, "They don't want us dying on any other terms besides their own; their game is that simple. That old freak gave me no other choice but to reveal our location. He's a dead man if I ever see him again."

"O-okay, so…what do we do now?" A tense and sweaty Jet asked. His words seemed to produce a vague sense of anxiety as they hung, unanswered, in the hot stuffy air. The brief, precious moments of respite had been cut short too soon and reality had quickly returned with an ominous vengeance. Sensing the need to act quickly, the Avatar finally decided to lift the silence with a deep exhale; priming himself for what was to come. Turning his attention to Jet, the Avatar responded, "We leave."

With that reply, Aang cautiously sauntered toward the breach. One by one, his fellow comrades followed closely behind him. Peering out into the dark halls of the drill supply from behind the bent metal of the breach, Aang could see nothing in the pitch blackness of the hall's depths. Taking his gaze away, Aang looked back toward his comrades.

"Iroh?" He called.

The general made eye contact with the airbender and immediately knew what he was asking for, "I'm on it." He replied back. Aang gave way as the general shifted his body toward the breach and sent forth a short stream of flame from his hand into the darkness, illuminating the surrounding area. The general then gazed into the brightened halls and quickly turned his head back towards Aang and the others, "It's all clear." He muttered quietly.

Aang nodded, "Alright, let's go."

Iroh replied with a similar head gesture and made the first move out the narrow exit. Knocking down the loosened seal with a strong kick, the general emerged from the smothering room followed by the rest of his companions. With Hama's exit, the last person was out and the group huddled close together in the dimly lit hallway. Without beckoning, both Iroh and Azula created torches of flame, in their palms, to provide more light in the faint surroundings.

"Okay guys, we're going to find a way out of here, alright? Let's keep quiet, stay together and move carefully." Aang whispered as he looked at each of his companions in the eyes, "Azula, stay close to the front so we can clearly see ahead. Iroh put out your flame so we won't attract too much attention to ourselves." He ordered. At the sight of Iroh obediently cancelling his flame, a vivid image of Katara unexpectedly flashed in Aang's mind. Quickly, he shook the thought off to remain focused. Giving a shallow exhale, the Avatar then led the way for the tiny group as they began their anxious search for escape.

Moving at a swift and vigilant pace, the group maneuvered through the maze-like halls of the drill supply as silently as possible. A nervous Hama, however, had her attention divided as she trailed at the rear. Between keeping up with the restless pace of the group and fretfully observing her surroundings for strange movements, Hama failed to keep focused with her comrades as they entered into a corridor with two directions. While Hama had her head turned, the group took one course and disappeared behind a corner. When the old woman turned her attention back to the group, she was startled to find none of her comrades in sight.

"Hello?" Hama called out worriedly as she stood alone between the two passages.

She could feel her stomach tightly knot as no response returned and deep chills suddenly began to creep up her spine. In a panic, Hama fled in the opposite direction of the group, hoping to rejoin them. Unfortunately, the group never noticed Hama's separation as they continued their advance.

The old woman found herself going further and further down strange metal halls devoid of nothing but dust, hanging wires and the echoing sounds of her lone panting breath. Stopping momentarily in the middle of a hallway to not only catch her breath, but somewhat calm her nerves as well, Hama noticed a series of moving shadows reflect through a small gap in the wall next to her.

"Hey-Hey guys!" Hama screamed in excitement while scurrying towards the gap. Her voice successfully managed to draw back her surprised and confused comrades on the other side of the wall.

"Hama! Wha-what are you doing there?" Aang asked in astonishment.

Hama, relieved just to have made contact with another human being again, gave a nervous chuckle, "I-I got lost from you guys somewhere behind. Just please…get me out of here okay?" She sputtered between tired huffs of air.

"There's no time. We've got to leave her!" Azula exclaimed to the others.

Aang whipped his head toward the princess, "What? NO! We can't abandon Hama like we did Phil!"

Using her free hand, an impatient Azula grabbed Aang by the collar of his garment and pulled him close to her, "Listen Avatar, don't be a fool! This is exactly that _same_ situation _all_ over again! Do you really want to stay here and get even more people killed that you could've protected, or do you want to sacrifice _one_ life for the greater good?" The princess snarled. Azula's intentionally manipulative words sank deep into Aang's guilt-scarred heart and he released himself from her forceful grip. Biting his lip, Aang turned a quivering face onto Hama's anxious one and held back his tears, "I'm so sorry." He whispered before quickly turning away to resume leading the escape.

A surprised Hama watched as the Avatar and everyone else but Iroh moved ahead. The general, as emotionally conflicted as Aang—possibly even more so—had kept himself quiet during the short debate due to his mixed feelings. Hama, tears forming in her eyes, looked at Iroh as her last hope, "Please Iroh, you've got to get me out of here." She pleaded. Iroh silently gazed at Hama before he closed his eyes, sadly lowered his head and moved along to rejoin the others.

Disheartened and beyond shocked, Hama staggered away from the gap and attempted to dry her eyes with her sleeves. Looking ahead into the deeper shadows of the dim hall, the old woman picked up a small piece of metal near her foot and intended to judge the remaining distance of the hall. Throwing the piece of metal with a hard thrust, Hama was surprised that the flying object barely made it more than a few feet away from her before it clanged against a solid surface that gave off a strange electric spark.

Hama's heart nearly jumped out her chest when the electric spark caused the figure of a translucent silhouette to reveal itself slowly ambling towards her. Gripped by a devastating onset of fear, the old woman could barely utter a peep as the figure approached. Steadily stepping back with each corresponding step of the imposing figure's cool advance, Hama jolted when the sinister sound of an unsheathing blade abruptly caught her ears. Despite beads of cold sweat dropping down her brow, the old woman struggled to find the nerve to effectively focus on bending her natural element in order to defend herself. Quietly reveling in the dramatic stalk of its prey, the super predator was finally preparing to unleash a vicious attack on Hama when, unexpectedly, another human appeared from a corner behind the old woman.

Iroh shot two quick fireballs at the approaching super predator, hitting it square in the armor and stunning the alien, momentarily, before quickly grabbing Hama by the arm and leading her away. Up ahead, Aang, Azula, Jet and Piandao entered into a large chamber that gave the look of being the drill supply's old engine room. Almost immediately, Aang picked up on a small trace of fresh air that flowed into the chamber. An opening to the outside was somewhere present and the airbender's focus shifted to a massive shaft, implanted on a wall, further down the chamber's area.

"This way everyone!" Aang commanded. Azula, Jet and Piandao followed the running airbender up to the body of the shaft and proceeded through one of many wide openings on the shaft's grated circular frame. Just as soon as the four humans went through the shaft, Iroh and Hama finally made their way into the chamber themselves. Hama ran ahead of Iroh while the general, after pausing to cautiously observe the passage through which both he and Hama emerged from, came shortly behind. Following the footsteps left by the others in the dusty metallic floor, the two elders were steadily approaching the shaft when the sound of a loud blast suddenly echoed in the air.

Iroh immediately felt a painful burning sensation rip through his back, just barely beneath the shoulder blades, and exit below his sternum. He gave an agonizing grunt as he collapsed to the ground forward. At his cry, Hama halted her stride, quickly turned around and saw the debilitated Iroh lying pitifully on the ground behind her. But before she could do or say anything, the full physical appearance of the super predator manifested itself, from its translucent camouflage, and steadily approached the general's body from behind. At this sight, Hama abandoned Iroh to his fate and rushed through the shaft.

Crawling on his belly, in a futile attempt to somehow escape the oncoming super predator, the wounded Iroh rolled onto his back, apprehensively, as soon as the super predator reached his sandaled feet. The intergalactic hunter then greeted the general with a violent stab of its long serrated melee blade into the soft flesh of his belly.

"GAHH!" Iroh screamed at the top of his lungs.

Then, in an amazing feat of strength, the alien used its one assailing arm to lift Iroh from the ground, with the general still gaffed onto its blade, and held him from the weapon in midair. Between the grimaces of excruciating pain on his face, Iroh managed to stare back at the cold strange facial mask of the super predator. In a sudden bout of anger, the general protested against his sudden fate by spitting a mixture of blood and saliva onto the super predator's mask.

"Boy…you sure are one ugly-" The general was cut off when the super predator suddenly jerked its arm upwards in order to sink its blade deeper into Iroh's abdomen, causing him to release an agonizing cry in response. Hyperventilating, shortly afterwards, in order to catch his shallow breath, the general could feel his body numbing and his consciousness start to fade. Iroh knew that it was only a matter of time before his life would come to an end, but he was resolved not to go out alone.

Forming a weak smile on his lips, Iroh gazed at the super predator's expressionless mask, "There is an ancient Fire Nation saying…'when the life of a star comes to an end, the whole universe knows!'" Iroh then clasped his hands tightly onto the larger attacking arm of the super predator. The irises of his amber colored eyes illuminated to a bright yellow just as the veins in his face and neck began to protrude from beneath his skin. The confused super predator didn't know what to make of its stubborn prey until the general gave a loud yell with the last of his fading lung capacity, "DIE YOU MONSTER!" Iroh's body then erupted in a massive explosion of fire that engulfed the super predator and the entire surrounding area.

Aang was at the edge of the shaft's exit, watching as each of his comrades made their way out. Despite the hostility of the environment, he found some relief in the windy freshness of the open outdoors as opposed to the dank depths of the drill supply. After Piandao made his way out, Aang was surprised to see a panting Hama appear shortly after him, "Hama? You-you're here! Wait, where's Iroh?" Aang inquired.

Hama shook her head as she scampered onto the ground, "Back down—the hunter….inside." She gasped. Aang raised his eyebrows in alarm, "What!" The airbender then looked back into the depths of the shaft. Just as he did so a strange quake began to rattle the body of the drill supply and the dry rocky terrain where the group of humans were standing.

"Great! What's happening now?" Jet exclaimed.

Aang, still staring down the shaft, noticed a strange glow slowly illuminate its dark depths before a surge of fire quickly came rushing upwards. The airbender gave a surprised yell and stumbled backwards onto his rump as the surge exploded out of the frame of the shaft opening and flew into the sky, creating a tall spout of roaring flame that the group of humans marveled at with bright wide eyes. As the flame finally died down, the wind carried off the plumes of smoke and ash, rising from the shaft, into the surrounding area.

With his already dirty garment and sweaty skin further soiled by the flying blankets of grey cinder, Aang stuck himself on the ground, bewildered, "I-I don't understand." He muttered. Azula, however, was able to recognize the source behind the feat, "Uncle just killed one of the hunters…and himself." She replied bluntly.

Aang snapped his head at Azula, "What?"

"Whoa wait! You mean to tell me all _that_ was done by the firebender?" Jet asked in astonishment.

Azula kept her gaze on the smoking shaft as she responded, "Self combustion, a firebender's attack of last resort against overwhelming enemies in battle. It's the only thing that could've a caused such a firestorm. Coming from a firebender of uncle's caliber, it's no wonder that it was so volatile. Whatever went on down there, he must have gotten desperate." She then closed her eyes as if to reflect on her words.

Upon hearing the princess's explanation, Aang stared at the blackened body of the shaft as his emotions swirled about inside him. Shutting his eyelids tightly, he then pounded his right fist into the ashy ground beside him, "No…" He muttered under his breath. Piandao noticed Aang's action and came closer to the Avatar in order to kneel beside him. Placing his hand on Aang's shoulder, the swordsman gave his best consolation, "He was a good man…and an even _better_ friend. His sacrifice will not be in vain."

"YES!" Jet cried out in joy, "He got one! That no-good firebender got one! Bet that hunter looks pretty good now, huh? All fried up down there like a bad piece of—" The freedom fighter choked on his words as a concussive blast of energy hit him in the back and threw his body violently across the terrain. In alarm, Aang, Piandao, Azula and Hama drew their attention to where the blast had come from. A towering being, as dark in form as the night sky around it, came walking toward the small group of humans from the steep rocky slopes of the rugged, barren land behind them.

Quickly standing himself on his feet, Aang glimpsed at the physical appearance of one of his pursuer for the first time that day. The hunter resembled the same creature that he and the others had seen on the monolith earlier in the day, but it appeared to be much larger in size. A strange set of black armor adorned its body while its face was covered with a corresponding mask that had, what looked to be, the bony jaw of another creature attached to its base. A strange machine, on the side of the figure's mask, whirred loudly before a glowing spectrum of light emerged from it and rested itself on Aang's chest.

Aang gasped as he saw the familiar triangle of three glowing dots plaster onto his body and steadily work its way up. When it finally stopped at the middle of Aang's forehead, the Avatar swallowed hard. Azula, Piandao and Hama could do nothing but watch on in horror, from behind Aang, as the events unfolded before them.

Just as the machine from the figure's mask began to whir again, a marred Jet unexpectedly intervened and jumped on the back of the hunter. Wrapping his arms around its neck in a headlock, Jet struggled with the otherworldly creature, "You call that thing a fireball? Hah! I've been hit with worse from Fire Nation grannies!" The freedom fighter cried.

"JET!" Aang yelled.

"Go, get out of here!" Jet screamed back.

Aang realized the sacrifice that Jet was making and knew it wasn't his place anymore to protest. Clenching his fist, the Avatar went against his inhibitions and turned towards his comrades, "C'mon, let's go!" He yelled. Jet watched as his fellow humans ran off into the distance of the surrounding jungle, leaving him to deal solely with his opponent. Using one arm to grab one of his tiger hooks, Jet then proceeded to stab the sharp end of his weapon into the chest of the hunter, "I can kill you guys just as good as any firebender!" He yelled as he repeatedly stabbed the hunter.

While the blows caused some pain to the super predator, they gave little of the effect that Jet had intended to inflict. The super predator finally caught a grip of Jet's garment and heaved the freedom fighter off its back with a rough toss. The landing slightly disoriented Jet as he fell hard on his chest and received a face full of ash and dirt. The texture of Noland's stolen predator armor stood out from underneath the large burnt tear on the back of his garment as he lay prostrate on the ground. Hearing the footsteps of the hunter approach from behind, Jet turned his muddled face over his shoulder and looked up to the glowering figure standing above him. He knew that he was dead the minute he had jumped onto the back of the hunter, but the freedom fighter had always lived to deal with the consequences of his impulsive actions and his latest predicament was no different. Forming a weak smile on his lips, the teenaged rebel fatalistically baited the super predator to deliver the final blow, "C'mon…is that all you got?" He jeered.

Almost as if it understood Jet's harassing words, the super predator raised its arm to deliver the death strike against its opponent. Just as it began to plunge its arm downwards, in an attempt to viciously rip out Jet's spinal column from his exposed back, the freedom fighter managed to quickly roll over, reach for his second tiger hook and swing the hooked edge of the weapon right into the oncoming forearm of the super predator. The alien howled in pain as it retracted its wounded arm and stared at the object, which gaffed deeply into its steadily bleeding flesh, in shock.

"Hey, now that's some interesting blood that you got flowing there! Maybe you should consider hunting at some of the circuses in Ba Sing Se!" Jet loudly heckled. The infuriated super predator sharply returned its gaze to Jet and simultaneously, the rapid fire plasma caster, on the side of its mask, began to whir. Without mercy, the super predator fired a barrage of plasma blasts at the grinning Jet, hitting the freedom fighter's body in a violent assault that mauled his body beyond recognition. With beady, crimson red eyes, the huffing predator stared at the smoking corpse of its opponent, after the onslaught, through the dark eyeholes of its metal mask.

It was at that moment that the next remaining member of the now super predator duo, the Falconer, came sauntering onto the scene. It stood at a short distance as it watched its leader, the Beserker, pry Jet's hook sword from its thick arm. The Beserker, raising its wounded arm to observe the injury more closely, clenched its fist twice to test the strength of its arm. Although the pain was very present, it was nevertheless bearable. However, the fact that the super predator had even sustained an injury, on what was supposed to be a fairly leisure type hunt, troubled its thoughts. It found itself even more ashamed to consider that a member of its own team had been killed by one of their prey. Sensing the presence of its nearby comrade, the Berseker turned around to face the waiting Falconer. Without saying so much as a word, the Berseker gave a jerk of its head in the direction that Aang, Azula, Piandao and Hama had fled and the Falconer understood exactly what its leader commanded.

Meanwhile, the four humans found themselves running through the tall grass of an open field when suddenly Piandao, trailing at the rear, stopped his stride. The rest of his comrades noticed his halting footsteps and turned their puzzled gazes back towards him. The swordsman stared back with a stern expression on his face, "This is enough. I'm not running anymore." He spoke up.

An incredulous Aang couldn't believe Piandao's statement, "Piandao look, we nee—"

"A good friend of mine is dead…" Piandao interrupted, "…He sacrificed his life for me, for all of us, and took down one of the enemy while doing it. As a warrior, I cannot uphold the honor of his memory by running from the same fate that overtook him. I will face my enemy in combat and either live to see another day or claim this field as my grave. I have made my decision, best of fortunes to you all." The swordsman then turned his back to his comrades and stood facing the opposite direction expectantly.

Save for a brief pause after the end of Piandao's speech, an unmoved Azula continued on with the flight. The princess's sudden departure drew Hama's attention and the old woman returned to fleeing as well. Fidgeting between his own anxiety and what remained of his trampled personal values, Aang looked on at Piandao with steadily retreating feet, "Piandao..." He muttered, a sense of reluctance in his voice, "...good luck!" Aang finally cried before turning away to catch up with Azula and Hama. Piandao gave a deep sigh through his nostrils as he faced the open field ahead of him. Reaching his hands onto the placket of his coat, Piandao began to undress himself of the particular article. Standing bare-chested, with his crumpled crimson coat at the side of his left boot, Piandao rotated his neck slowly as the sounds of cracking vertebrae echoed in his ears. With another sigh, this time through his mouth, Piandao grabbed the hilt of the sword, at his waist, and gradually unsheathed it, producing a sharp hissing noise as the blade emerged. The swordsman then poised himself in fighting stance, his brows furrowed deeply and eyes wide open, as he continued to stare ahead. The Falconer Predator now stood at short distance away from Piandao, mesmerized by the prospect of a prey clearly choosing to confront it rather than run away.

"You're a bit earlier than I expected." Piandao muttered to his unintelligible enemy, the tip of his sword pointing directly at the super predator. The Falconer, however, didn't need to understand the swordsman's words to comprehend his challenge. Unsheathing its' wrist blade, the Falconer sought to duel its opponent on equal terms. Slowly, both man and alien circled each other in a quiet showdown, staring each other down until Piandao let out a yell and charged toward the super predator. Nimbly, the Falconer evaded the thrust of Piandao's sword and counterattacked with a slash of its own blade that superficially sliced across the skin of Piandao's back as he missed the alien. Despite the sting of his bleeding diagonal cut, Piandao calmly composed himself as he turned to face the super predator, once again, and reset his fighting stance, "Good one." He mumbled.

Again, the swordsman took the offensive and attacked the super predator. The sounds of violently clanging metal permeated through the still night air as each individual and successive strike from the two opponents was countered by a parry or block from the other. When Piandao locked his blade with that of the super predator, the Falconer decided to show the discrepancy between their strengths by pushing off of his smaller opponent. Piandao found his world spinning wildly as the alien's impressive might hurled his body high into the air. Tumbling haplessly, like a rag doll, before landing in the depths of the tall grass, a short distance away from the Falconer, the bewildered swordsman managed to quickly pick himself up to his feet, so as to not give his opponent any advantage.

Again, the two warriors stared each other down before they engaged in another face-off. Piandao kept his breathing calm and steady as he observed the super predator for an opening to attack, "_Got to keep taking the battle to this creature…_" He thought, "_…By that last attack, I can't afford for it to take the offensive._" The Falconer, meanwhile, muttered a low growl as it kept it arms wide and slowly strafed with Piandao in a wide circle. The swordsman noticed subtleties in the Falconer's movements that signaled to his warrior's intuition that it was about to attack. Letting out another sigh through his nostrils, Piandao prepared himself mentally and physically, _"This is it. It's now or nothing."_ He whispered in the back of his mind.

Like he predicted, the super predator charged head on toward him. Piandao then let out another loud yell and responded by taking a similar charge at the Falconer. As they raced toward each other, the two opponents held their blades, at the ready, in an adrenaline-fueled final duel to decide their fates. The strikes from the two warriors were lightning quick as both Piandao and the Falconer grazed past each other and abruptly halted their strides, after the attack, on opposite sides. With a loud guttural cry, the Falconer limply spun its body around as it collapsed backwards onto the grassy earth. The victorious Piandao, however, even after hearing his opponent's death cry, stayed frozen in his same position. A troubled expression plagued the swordsman's face as he hoarsely gasped for air. The taste of blood was slowly saturating his mouth while a sharp pain across his torso steadily intensified. With each sparse gasp that he took, Piandao could feel his strength gradually depart and the pain in his torso become duller and duller. The world was suddenly disorienting and Piandao struggled to keep his balance. Looking ahead to the blurring picture of open field before him, Piandao uttered his last words, "Looks like we're even now…old friend." The swordsman's legs then buckled and he fell behind into a soft engulfing bed of tall grass.

The jungle trail was familiar to Aang and his comrades now as both he, Azula and Hama quickly approached the hunters' camp on anxious feet. For all that had occurred throughout the long day, Aang couldn't help but feel absurd in his current predicament. Why he actually trusted Azula, of all people, to pilot some type of foreign machine, known as a 'spaceship', which none of the three had ever seen _or_ heard, but apparently, was the only way for the humans to return home, he didn't know. Desperation was the only reasonable excuse that Aang could fathom in the back of his mind. The living nightmare that he was trapped in was pushing him to the limits of sanity and all he really wanted was escape at this point. All of sudden, Hama released a shrill cry in the middle of the collective flight and collapsed in front of Aang.

"HAMA!" Aang yelled in concern as he abruptly came to a halt and knelt down to attend the old woman who laid crumpled on the jungle floor, crying and hyperventilating from some unknown affliction. Visibly annoyed to be prematurely stopping her pace, once again, a sweaty and frustrated Azula quickly approached her two comrades to learn the source of the new interruption, "What is it this time!" The princess impatiently exclaimed.

"My ankle! My ankle!" Hama shouted back in pain. Aang was already at work releasing the leghold trap that had unfortunately latched onto Hama's foot. He managed to successfully pry open the mouth of the trap and Hama quickly released her mauled and bloodied foot. "Oh, thank you…thank you Avatar Aang!" Hama huffed between relieved pants of air. Aang shook his head as he wrapped one of his arms around Hama's back and slung one of her arms over his shoulder, "It's nothing Hama…really." He replied, just as he began to lift Hama up.

"No, I was lucky that—AHHH!" Hama's statement quickly turned into a cry of pain when the airbender, after barely managing to stand both himself and Hama up, forced Hama to put a small amount of weight on her tender ankle. In alarm, Aang quickly laid Hama back down gently, "Hama, are you okay?" He asked.

"No, she's not." Azula answered for the old woman, "Look, that trap that she stepped on was designed to maim. She can't walk anymore. Those hunters placed them around here to slow us down. She's a burden to us now."

Hama's eyes widened, "What! No, I can—"

"That's enough! You've slowed us down once already. It's not about to happen again!" Azula harshly interrupted.

With her mouth agape, Hama paced her gaze, back-and-forth, between Azula and then Aang, "Wait, you guys aren't going to leave me here, are you? I-I can still walk! I can, I-I'll show you!" Hama stammered. The old woman then tried to pick herself up from the ground. Her injured ankle, unfortunately, locked her leg in a sharp tinge of pain that sent the old woman back on her posterior with a sharp cry. Aang, still crouching, placed his hands on both of Hama's shoulders in order to console the old woman, "Hama stop! Just take it easy, okay? No one is going to leave you." He spoke.

"Speak for yourself Avatar. The old woman is deadweight!" Azula exclaimed, "But listen, we can make the most of this situation. I say we booby trap her! Make those hunters play into our _own_ hands. Look Avatar, I know we've had our differences, but just think about how brilliant this plan can be if we both work together! We could finally kill these monsters and end this game!" Azula cried. The prospect of success in her sinister plan caused the princess to display an insidious pair of wide eyes with a grin to match.

A shocked Hama stared at Azula in utter disbelief before she looked over to Aang. The Avatar had his eyes locked with Azula's in a silent ruminating stare. With a breaking voice, Hama began to plead again, "Please…please Avatar, don't do this to me." The old woman's voice echoed within Aang's ear and wrenched his heart. This whole day he had his limits pushed mentally, physically and spiritually. In the space of a couple of hours, Aang had done more things against his character than he could ever have imagined doing in his lifetime. This game preserve was changing him, he knew that he needed to survive, but he didn't want to become a predator in order to do so. Standing himself up, Aang shook his head, "This isn't right. Hama is one of us!" He finally responded to the princess.

An exasperated Azula lifted her arms up to express her frustration, "Oh c'mon Avatar, do I really have to spell it out for you! Don't you get it? This is what those creatures are counting on! They _want_ you to feel something for this woman. They want you to be human!" She retorted.

Aang narrowed his eyes, "And what are you?" He asked.

Relaxing her mood, the princess returned Aang's gaze with a proud raised chin, "Alive."

It was then, at that very moment, that Aang realized what needed to be done, "Fine, you want to go on living? Down_ there_ is your chance." The airbender pointed in the direction ahead of both he, Azula and Hama, "But I'm _not_ leaving another person behind. Not anymore." He calmly spoke.

Azula scoffed and shook her head, "You know what? I'm through. You're a hopeless cause. Maybe you'll appreciate the concept of survival when you're hanging upside down from some lonely tree branch; skinned and put on display like some animal in a butcher shop window." Turning around, the princess then sprinted away, disappearing in the thick brush of the jungle in a matter of moments. Left in the quiet eerie darkness by themselves, Aang and Hama watched Azula's departure with reticent eyes. With a soft sigh, Aang rerouted his focus and gently looked down at Hama. Crouching to reach her level, once more, the Avatar placed a reassuring hand on the old woman's shoulder and connected his determined gaze with the old woman's weary eyes, "Alright Hama, we're going to try this again. Okay?"

Beads of sweat poured down Azula's brow as she neared the camp of the hunters. Her long unkempt hair, usually straightened and pulled back, had become thick, unruly and heavier due to constant perspiration. The heat of the jungle, the seemingly endless amount of running throughout the day and the constant threat of death were stresses that not only started to wear out the princess's hair, but her composure as well. With frantic hands, Azula roughly pulled at the hems and plackets of the royal garb on her upper body. Layer upon layer gradually fell behind her moving body until a flowing, grey, damp tank top revealed itself on her upper body. In the back of her mind, Azula marveled at her brash action. Such behavior was unbecoming of her upbringing as Fire Nation royalty, but pride had to be put aside for another day. If Azula was to maintain any semblance of her sanity in the chaotic environment around her, she knew that she needed to be cool first.

Crossing into the familiar compound once again, Azula slowed her pace as she drew toward the giant monolith upon which the equally imposing creature was bound. Various campfires, burning indiscriminately around the area, vaguely illuminated the sinister landscape with an orange-red hue, casting ghostly shadows among the carnage and destruction of the vicinity. The creature, alerted by Azula's approaching presence, slowly raised its large sulking head to look on at the small human standing before it. Sweaty and out of breath, the princess managed to find composure in her exhaustion as she locked eyes with the creature. Closing her mouth, Azula took a deep inhale through her nostrils and collected herself in preparation to speak, "Listen up. We may not speak the same language, but I think we can find a way to understand each other just right."

The creature, although unintelligible to Azula's words, continued to quietly stare at the princess; intrigued by her bold stature. Azula then raised her right hand and curled her digits underneath her extended index and middle fingers. Blue sparks began to crack from the tips of the two fingers and the creature, at the sight, gave a low apprehensive growl. The response caused Azula to form a smile on her face, "You understand _this_ right? Well, let's see if you can get this next one: I want _off_ this planet!" She exclaimed. The creature, gaping at Azula with reluctant eyes, uttered a strange hiss from its mouth as if gaining a growing comprehension of her actions. The princess nodded, "Good. Now then…" She trailed off while sauntering closer toward the side of the monolith. There, in a narrow gap between the bound body of the creature and the monolith itself, she could see the chain binding that held the two together. Looking up, the princess and the creature locked eyes together once again, "…let's get you down from here." She then pointed her fingers at the binding and in one shot, singed it apart. Immediately, the creature fell gracelessly on the rough earth below it and Azula eagerly watched as the freed creature slowly picked itself up and stood on its own thick two legs. Turning its head toward the princess, the creature took two steps in Azula's direction before it was directly towering above her petite frame.

Curling her lips tight, Azula quietly held back the growing anxiety in her heart as the intimidating alien being stood before her. She understood all too well the gamble that she had made in not only freeing the creature, but laying down her defense as well. However, they were risks that she hoped would help finalize her appeal to the creature. Now she waited to see how successful her decision was. The answer came quickly in the form of a large rough hand that tightly grasped her neck, causing Azula to let out a choked cry in alarm. Staring at her face in observation, the creature physically moved Azula's head to inspect her right and left profile. After achieving some strange sense of approval, it then shoved the princess back roughly.

Meanwhile, Aang and Hama trudged through the jungle laboriously. Dedicated to reaching the camp with Hama, the airbender moved at a consistent pace despite the growing fatigue in his legs from supporting part of Hama's weight. A similarly inspired and weary Hama, with an arm slung over the airbender's shoulder, grunted and huffed with each step in her aching unstable gait. While considerably slow in their effort, the two nonetheless seemed to be making progress in their advance. In the middle of their flight, Aang felt something suddenly snap underneath the sole of his boot. Then, much to he and Hama's surprise, the small area around them became engulfed in what Aang could only perceive as a giant net. Lifted high into the air, along with various shrubs, leaves and twigs swallowed up by the net, Aang and Hama were left suspended and trapped, within the net's compressed body, from some indiscriminate tree branch.

"Oh no, no, no…this can't be happening!" Aang shouted as he pulled out the resilient material of the net.

Hama, on the other hand, had her attention caught by a conspicuous figure that emerged from the depths of the jungle below. Letting out a loud scream at the recognizable sight, the old woman drew Aang's attention to the ground where he saw the source of her fear and let out a cry of his own. With a quiet delight, the Beserker Predator stood staring at his entrapped prey from the jungle floor.

Back at the camp, Azula watched as the released creature finished equipping itself in a set of gear similar to the ones that she had seen the other hunters wear. While she could hardly call their new acquaintance friendly, she was grateful that the creature had expressed enough gratitude to not kill her outright. It was the midpoint of what Azula was hesitant to call a successful plan. That is, before the last piece came into play. The adorned creature turned its attention to Azula, who stood at a modest distance away. The princess observed as the creature raised its forearm and pressed on the strange metallic band that covered it. Immediately, a glowing turquoise image of what appeared to be a map of the Four Nations appeared from the band and Azula, in a longing desire for her native world, unconsciously released a smile of relief. The creature, noticing the princess's expression, then pressed another button on the band that cancelled the image, but also caused another strange glow to appear in the distance beyond both the creature and Azula.

From her position, Azula could make out the long and bulky frame of some type of craft that hummed loudly while it levitated, at a slow but nonetheless increasing distance, above the earth below it. But before the princess could do anything else, the sound of a vicious snarl echoed from behind her. She quickly turned around and saw the familiar large frame of the hunter that she had encountered earlier approach. In its right arm, it grasped the end of a large net that drug the squirming bodies of both Aang and Hama. Pausing at a deep ditch, previously dug within the area, along its way, the hunter released its catch into the ditch's depths with a rough heave. Gazing ahead, the hunter appeared shocked to observe the awkward scene of its former captive and one of its prey mingling together. A visibly anxious Azula began to slowly back away while the freed creature stepped forward and positioned itself in a challenging fight stance. Upon the sight, Azula didn't need another clue to guess what was about happen. Taking advantage of the distraction, she quickly turned and fled toward the bright floating vessel in her distance.

The Beserker Predator stared at the insolent image of a lower class Predator challenging it to combat with deep resentment. With a fierce growl, the super predator charged at its smaller counterpart, who responded similarly. As the two aliens dueled on the surface, Aang and Hama, while freed from the net, were left as spectators to the violent sounds of the matchup as they wallowed in their new entrapment. With despair gradually taking over what was left of his fighting spirit, Aang closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as he struggled to find some sort of possible hope in both he and Hama's grim situation.

Azula, however, found herself standing directly in front of the vessel that she had only recently come to know as a spacecraft. Looking upon the massive spectacle as its powerful engines blew gusts of wind, mixed with dirt and leaves, throughout the area, Azula felt a gripping sense of reluctance to proceed further. It was a strange feeling that conflicted all that she had worked for up to this particular point, but as much as her reasoning wanted to, she couldn't deny its influence. The spacecraft was lifting higher and higher from the ground and with it, Azula's hopes for returning back to the Four Nations. The time to make a decision was short. She knew that fear wasn't holding her back. Despite the foreignness of the structure, the princess still had faith in her piloting abilities and assumed that the creature had coordinated the ship for her world somewhat, which would explain the spacecraft's steady self-departure. She searched deeper in her heart for some explanation to her hesitation until one final speculation crossed her mind. Azula wondered if she actually felt some kind of concern for her companions that she had abandoned back in the camp. What was once a laughable thought to princess was now taken for serious consideration as she was faced with a pivotal decision that could mean life or death.

After a vicious one-on-one melee under the night sky, the super predator held the bloodied and dazed lower class predator, by the collar of its armor, with its mighty grasp. Sitting woozily on its knees before the taller standing body of its opponent, the predator, with its mask destroyed to reveal a debilitating wound on its exposed bloody forehead, stared weakly as the super predator began to remove its own mask. A visage similar to that of the predator, but broader in cranial shape with longer jowls, darker skin and ruby red eyes, gave an intense roar towards its defeated foe. Lifting up the same free arm with which it had removed its mask, the super predator released its wrist blade and with a swift merciless strike, decapitated the lower class predator.

At its victory, the super predator released another loud roar that echoed into the night. Hama wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she heard the unholy sound from the depths of the ditch. With worried eyes, she looked at the tranquil-appearing body of Aang as he sat in an uncanny meditation. After removing his soiled garment to achieve a better sense of comfort, the tattooed arrows from Aang's crown to the rest of his exposed upper body glowed with a bright luminescence. The Avatar had sought to get help in one of the last places he could think of: the Spirit World.

"What do you mean that I can't achieve the Avatar State in this world!" Aang cried as he stared incredulously at the ethereal image of a stoic Avatar Roku.

Despite his appearance and the heavenly backdrop of the peaceful Spirit World, Roku found himself deeply troubled by Aang's current situation and the explanation that he had to give his reincarnation, "_This_ world, while displaying evidences of the elements, is _false_ my dear boy. Its existence has been artificially created; possibly by the designs of the creatures that brought you here. There is no spiritual force here and thus, the power to use the Avatar State is virtually nonexistent..." Roku paused briefly, "…Words cannot express my deepest sorrow Aang."

A dumbfounded Aang, with nothing else to resort to, left his mouth agape as he placed his hand atop his bald head and stared blankly at the cloudy surface beneath his feet. The Avatar then released a deep sigh and let his two arms hang at his side. Returning his gaze back to Roku, an utterly dejected Aang replied, "So then that's it. I die here, the Fire Nation wins back home and the world continues without any balance, right?"

Roku was speechless as he stared back at Aang's blank face. Just when he finally thought he had found the words to effectively respond back to the airbender, Aang spoke first, "I suppose that this is what I deserve. Hopefully, my reincarnation succeeds where I've failed."

"Aang listen-" Roku began.

"No Roku…" He interrupted, "…I know what must be done."

Aang could hear Roku's echoing voice ring in his ears as he suddenly departed from the Spirit World. The airbender opened his eyes and found himself back on the game preserve. Hama noticed his restored consciousness and got the airbender's attention as he slowly picked himself off the ground, "It's unfortunate that you had wake up in time to see this, Avatar." She spoke somberly before raising her gaze into the sky behind Aang. Aang, following Hama's gesture, turned around and saw a brightly lit structure flying into the distance of the night sky, "That must be the spacecraft that Noland talked about. Looks like Azula made it after all." He spoke drearily, his eyes seemingly lost in the starlit heavens.

From her position behind Aang, Hama observed the Avatar's taciturn reaction, "If you could make the same decision again, would you do it?" She softly inquired. Aang, releasing his gaze from above, turned his attention onto the old woman and looked at her from over his right shoulder, "Of course I would Hama." He replied, "Look, when that hunter comes for us, I'll do my best to hold it back long enough for you to try to find some way to escape and survive longer. It's…it's the least that I can do for you now." The airbender spoke before returning his eyes back to disappearing image of the flying vessel.

Hama, on the other hand, retained her gaze on Aang, "Benevolent to the very end. I commend you Avatar, but I'm afraid that this game has gone on long enough." Before Aang could react to Hama's strange words, he felt his body overcome by a crippling sensation that locked his joints, "What the-" Aang managed to sputter before his body began to move out of his own control. With a rigid pivot, Aang's body was forcefully turned to face the disturbing image of an impishly smirking Hama, "Ah yes, it feels so good to finally step out of the weak victim role for a change." She spoke.

A grimacing Aang, fighting to regain some control over his body, looked on at Hama in surprise, "H-Hama, what's going on? What are you talking about?" He exclaimed.

The old woman broadened her smile and casually paced around the area of the ditch facing Aang, "Well Avatar, I believe that now is as good a time as any to explain my seemingly unfitting presence here. You see, by day, I'm a simple innkeeper, working hard to appear as a civil productive member of society. But by night, under the majestic light of a beautiful full moon, I'm a cold-blooded killer. I know that this comes as a surprising revelation, but if it makes any difference as to how you may view my character, I'm very picky when it comes to my victims. I prefer to limit myself to citizens of the Fire Nation, but often I find myself just as disgusted with people who sympathize or fraternize with them. People like you Avatar."

Aang widened his eyes, "Wh-what?" He stammered.

Hama giggled, "Earning the trust and pity from you and the others has kept me alive this long, but you've all served your purpose. Now this charade must come to an end; there's no more need to hide, whimper or manipulate anymore. I'm exposed to the moon and my waterbending powers are at their maximum, allowing me to reveal one of my biggest secrets…" The old woman paused and suddenly thrust her left arm out. Immediately Aang felt his body jolt forward uncontrollably and he hurriedly rushed up to the old woman; stopping as his neck fell into the embrace of Hama's open palm. He cringed as he felt her bony icy fingers wrap tightly onto his skin, "…bloodbending." She finally uttered.

"Blood-bending?" Aang sputtered.

"That's right my dear boy. This is what I'm going to use to make this world my new home. Ever since the day the Fire Nation left me to rot in that jail cell many years ago, my life has changed. I'm insane, a criminal on top of that, and you know what Avatar Aang? I like it. Our world could never accept me the way I am, but out here, with the monsters, I finally feel normal again. I want to stay." The old woman then gave an abrupt sigh, "I will admit though, Avatar, I do feel some reluctance in killing you. Your kindness and sacrifice have not gone entirely unnoticed. Were it not for your friendship with that abhorrent Fire Nation general, I would have actually considered a place for you in my utopia. But I guess that it just wasn't meant to be."

On the surface, the super predator had just barely returned its mask to its face before it sprinted in the direction of its departing ship. Shoving its way through the thick brush of the jungle, the alien anxiously reached its destination in time to witness the frame of its spacecraft disappearing into the dark night sky. The super predator stared at the fading vessel and thought of the human that had escaped, or, rather,_ believed_ that she had escaped. Relaxing its tense nerves, the alien raised its left forearm and calmly typed some random beeping sequence onto its surface. It then turned around and proceeded to saunter back on the way from which it had come. At roughly the same time, a violent explosion erupted from the flying spacecraft in midair and brought down its once exotic hull in a fiery smoking holocaust that dreadfully fell to the earth.

Back at the camp, a tall narrow column of ice, created from the water found in the soil of the ditch by Hama, provided both the old woman and the Avatar a means to escape from their confinement. Guiding Aang's helpless body behind her as the two stepped off of the structure's cold flat surface, Hama scanned the environment and was surprised to find it empty, "How oddly inconvenient." She muttered to herself. A somber Aang, however, stood quietly with his face cast down. Noticing his silence, Hama turned her head toward the airbender and read his body language, "Now, now, no need to be so glum. Wherever that hunter went, it will come back again. When it does, I will use it to deliver you into the Spirit World, with all your past lives, quickly and painlessly."

"What difference does it make? You have me here right now. Why don't you just get it over with?" Aang replied without so much as lifting his face.

Hama shook her head, "Oh you wouldn't want me to be the one to do that. Having all the fluids bended out from your skin is not the most pleasant way for one to meet their end. I've never been one for using blunt force either. That hunter is the most convenient tool around, so I'll use it to do the dirty work for me. Trust me, it's better this way."

Aang didn't respond, all he could think of now was the world that he was leaving behind, the people that he had failed before and the people that he would be failing now once he finally meets his end. An entire world, put to his charge, would suffer for his mistakes and, worst of all, the friends and pets that he loved so dearly and pledged to protect would have to experience that chaos. He closed his eyes and thought of his pets, Momo and Appa, and his friends, Sokka, Toph and Katara. The image of Katara's face attached itself to the back of his closed eyelids and he imagined raising an imaginary arm to caress her cheek for one final moment.

"The guest of honor has arrived!" Hama exclaimed, breaking Aang's short-lived fantasy. Opening his eyelids quickly, Aang peered at the imposing figure of the hunter who approached the two humans with a steady pace. With the disastrous ending of its hunt, the super predator gazed at its two remaining prey, which had somehow escaped from the ditch, with a silent frustration. Unsheathing its wrist blade, the super predator aimed to quickly do away with both of the humans and rid its memory of the day's fiasco. It wouldn't even bother to collect trophies, according to custom, due to the shame that it felt.

Aang and Hama remained still as the super predator closed in on them. "Come on, just a little bit closer." Hama muttered. The Beserker came to within a few feet of the humans and raised its bladed arm in anticipation for giving a lethal strike. At this range, Hama suddenly jolted her right arm upwards and the super predator was arrested in the middle of its stride. With an insidious smirk, the old woman gazed at the suspended hunter, "Oh, I'm sorry. We're you pointing that nasty blade at me? That's too bad, because _that_ kind of behavior is not going to be tolerated around here anymore."

Hama then pushed her right arm forward and the super predator quickly stumbled back. With a dry cackle, the old woman reveled in the controlling power that she displayed, "Oh how the mighty have fallen. You will make the quite the pet." Hama then turned her attention to Aang, who stood closely behind her. Peering at him from over her small shoulder, Hama looked at the airbender with a disturbing pair of emotionless eyes, "Well Avatar, it's time."

No sooner did Hama speak these words, did she manipulate the Avatar's body into walking toward the Beserker. Aang nervously hyperventilated through his nostrils as he came closer to the hunter's tall muscular body. When he finally stood right in front of it, Hama caused the super predator to lift its bladed arm high in the air and Aang, preparing himself for the end as best he could, closed his eyes tight and waited for the death blow.

"Goodbye Avatar!" Hama yelled as she raised her right arm in synchronization with the arm of the super predator. She then swung down and, concurrently, the Beserker imitated the same movement. Just as the blade came down on Aang's exposed crown, a crooked streak of bright blue electricity suddenly struck the super predator at the side and lifted the hunter off its feet. With a shrill cry of pain, the Beserker was sent careening in the air until it finally landed on a dusty pile of alien skulls almost a yard away.

Aand recognized the signature attack, but with his body still under Hama's control he was unable to turn his head toward the direction from which the lightning bolt had fired. Upon a rocky slope situated on the higher ground of the camp's rugged terrain, Azula gazed down at the scene below her, "Well, well, it looks like things have certainly taken an interesting turn for the worse since I left." She spoke.

"Azula, I-I thought you-" Aang sputtered.

"I missed my ride." Azula swiftly interrupted as she began walking down from the slope toward the Avatar and Hama. With a sneer on her face, Hama glowered at the approaching princess, "My, isn't this a strange surprise? The proud Fire Nation princess abandoning what may have been her only chance of escape in exchange for a rescue mission. I guess there's some good in that heart of yours after all."

"I wouldn't be so quick to make judgments about people. I'm sure that's something a con-artist like you can relate to." Azula replied, halting her stride a fair distance away from both Aang and Hama while facing them.

Hama smirked, "Strong words princess. You know, I'm actually glad that you managed to make it back here. Killing a member of the Fire Nation royal family was nothing more but a sweet fantasy to me until now. I'm so looking forward to seeing my pet slowly flay the skin from your body…starting with those irritating lips of yours."

Azula gave an acquiescent nod of her head, "Quite understandable. The Fire Nation has many enemies, none more so, or pathetic, than the water tribes. Why wouldn't you dream of goring me, my family or any fire nation citizen for that matter? It's all you and your people can do while we raid your homes, take your land and ultimately put you under our subjugation. Oh, wait a minute…you _also_ can relate with that too right?"

Hama furiously jolted her free arm forward and bound Azula's body rigidly with her bloodbending, "How dare you…? I spent years….YEARS wasting away in some dark, dank cell! Isolated from civilization and forced to live like an animal in a cage because of your kind. You think you can stand here and just mock me? Don't you realize how _much_ of an insect you are compared to me? I don't need that monster to kill you. No, I want to see you suffer at my own hands!" The old woman then sported her crooked wrinkled grin, "So many ways of torture, all more horrific and agonizing than the next. Maybe I'll slowly remove the water from your body until you're nothing more than a dry wrinkled corpse. Or maybe I'll make the blood explode from your innards and watch you choke on your reddened vomit. I could even direct all of your circulation to your head and see what wonderful surprises could ensue from there. Still feel so confident princess? Or can you accept the fact that you're actually about to die in utter agony?"

Azula grimaced as she struggled to gather her words under the growing pain of her tightening muscles. Hama however, didn't relent, "C'mon now, use that bold mouth of yours and TALK!" The old woman cried as she curled the fingers of her assaulting hands inwards, causing Azula to let out a pain-ridden grunt. Hama snickered as she toyed with the blood in the princess's muscular anatomy and watched with sadistic interest as Azula finally managed to form some quiet words with her lips.

"What was that?" Hama mockingly asked, "I can't hear you over here!"

Azula grunted again as she moved her mouth once more, "D-du…"

Hama nodded, "Uh huh, keep gibbering!"

"…duh-duck." Azula finally sputtered.

The old woman cackled, "A truly interesting last word princess, now—!" Hama stopped her sentence midway when she suddenly noticed a strange sight upon her body. Gazing down, the old woman peered at the small glowing image of three triangulated red dots at the center of chest. The sense of shock and incredulity upon Hama's face, as she slowly raised her head, was verbally expressed with a soft groan from her wrinkled throat, "Oh…" A high pitched humming noise soon permeated the air and a thick mass of bluish pure energy struck Hama's petite frame.

The resulting explosion knocked Aang to the dirt covered ground and threw pieces of earth and dust against his naked back. Raising his grimacing dirty face from the earth, the Avatar noticed a severed bony finger lying in front of him and he quickly jolted away from it in alarm. From her position, a freed Azula stared apprehensively at the image of the recovered super predator as it sauntered toward the small crater where Hama once stood. With the smoke still rising from its cooling plasma cannon, the super predator observed its work with a reticent sense of satisfaction.

Aang, meanwhile, had managed to scramble next to Azula and joined the princess in her disquieted gaze of their common enemy, "I got to hand it to you…" He huffed, "…you never cease to surprise me."

"It's what I do best." Azula responded.

"Well, any _other_ ideas in that of head of yours that you're not telling me?"

"Yes: figure out another way to stay alive now."

The two humans watched as the super predator turned its gaze toward them. In response, they both positioned themselves in battle stances. As he moved, Aang could feel an increased stickiness in his skin as the thick amount of soil that had collected on his upper body mixed with the sweaty surface of his exposed skin, creating a moist muddy plaster.

Unsheathing its wrist blade once again, the Beserker hesitated before it attempted a melee attack. Through the lens of its thermal vision, the body heat of only one of the two surviving humans in the area was registering. In its confusion, the super predator settled for its plasma cannon and prepared to fire upon its only target. Aang and Azula recognized the ominous whirring sound of the Beserker's cannon and reactively prepared to flee.

Three blasts were quickly hurled out from the plasma cannon and Aang fled in one direction while Azula took another. Taking cover behind the thick remnant of large splintered tree, the princess barely managed to shelter herself from the from the full concussive force of the blasts as they detonated around her, sending a chaotic storm of flying dirt, ravaged tree bark and torn plant life upon her small crouched body.

At his separate end, squatting behind the wide, moss covered frame of a fallen oak, Aang watched in confusion as the super predator directed its sole attention to Azula, "Azula! Are you okay?" He cried out after the onslaught. The princess was slow to answer as she struggled to regain her equilibrium and handle the sharp ringing in her ears. Upon the delay, Aang turned his attention back to the super predator, who, was now advancing once again in both he and Azula's direction. The airbender knew something wasn't right, but the situation at hand prompted him to act immediately.

With an acrobatic leap, guided by his control of the air, Aang somersaulted from behind the oak and landed in the open before the oncoming super predator. The Berserker, sensing Aang's presence, halted its stride, but gazed at the surroundings apprehensively as it failed to pick up the airbender's image. Noticing the hunter's awkward pause, Aang swung his arms in a quick, synchronized, flowing motion that ended with a push of his arms forward. A violent gust of wind emitted from his open palms and knocked the unsuspecting super predator off of its feet and tumbling backwards on the earth behind it.

Gradually, Azula's bearings came back to her and lifting herself on her own two legs, she turned her attention onto the beginning duel between the Avatar and the super predator. She watched as the super predator quickly hoisted itself to its feet and loudly snarled in an expression of anger. It moved its head frantically throughout the area as if trying to seek out its attacker, when all the while Aang barely stood more than five feet away. The princess contemplated the strange sight and how both she and the Avatar could possibly use it to their advantage.

Aang was also observing the strange behavior of his opponent, but just as he prepared to initiate another attack, he noticed the periphery of the environment suddenly erupt in tall flames. In confusion, the airbender cried out to the most practical culprit of the phenomenon, "Azula, what are you doing!?"

The princess was quick to respond, "Just work with me and keep attacking the hunter, Avatar! For some reason, it has trouble seeing you. The flames will help to further disorient everything else around the both of you!" She yelled from beyond the fire. Upon Azula's words, the Avatar took a gulp; this was it, the advantage was now in his favor. Again, Aang repeated a similar airbending attack and knocked the unsuspecting hunter to the ground once more. The Avatar was surprised at the recurring success of his attack and he became convinced of the validity of Azula's tactic.

Azula, meanwhile, was priming a growing electrical spark upon the index and middle fingers of her right hand. Watching the hunter as it fell, the princess waited for the right moment to strike. Anticipation fueled the adrenaline flowing in Azula's blood as she pondered how to deliver a deadly bolt of lightning through the heart of the hunter. A point blank attack not only seemed foolproof, but proper for the one responsible for bringing her to the game preserve in the first place. The irritated super predator was slower to get on its feet the second time around and had barely supported itself on its left knee before Azula came charging through the flames and toward the recovering super predator from its blind side. It surprised Aang to see the princess appear so suddenly, but he nonetheless watched as Azula leapt in the air, a crackling spark of energy emanating from her hand, and came down upon the body of the crouched hunter.

What seemed like an another plan slowly unfolding into fruition for the princess, quickly took a turn for the worse as the hunter snapped its head in Azula's direction, lifted its arm and fired its wrist blade as a projectile. The sudden jerk of her body backwards from the blade's velocity, as it deeply sunk into her right shoulder, was the first thing Azula felt before she roughly landed on the dirt ground; an intense, throbbing pain now gripping her shoulder and numbing her entire right arm.

Standing itself straight, the super predator quickly approached its downed attacker and, in cruel satisfaction, hurled its arm downward, clasping its thick alien fingers around Azula's neck, and lifting her high from the ground. Gagging from the asphyxiating might of the super predator's grip as she dangled in the air, Azula grasped the assailing arm of her attacker with her mobile left hand. The act was more of a reaction than an attempt at retaliation, as the princess struggled to breathe and retain her quickly fading consciousness.

"NO!" Aang yelled from his distance. Again the airbender was prompted to act without thinking. Crouching down swiftly, the Avatar suddenly exploded off the ground as he hurled himself forward, using a powerful gust of wind as propulsion, at the super predator. The human projectile struck its unsuspecting target in a matter of seconds, releasing Azula, and sending both boy and alien wildly flying across a short breadth of the camp. The flight came to an abrupt end, however, as the two soon crashed into the thick, crooked body of one of the many ravaged trees in the area. The force of the impact shattered the tree trunk and sent both Aang and the Beserker tumbling uncontrollably onto the dry earth.

Stunned, heavily scratched and mildly bleeding from a shallow cut on his scalp, Aang grimaced as he lifted his head to peer at where the super predator had landed. Spotting his enemy laying similarly in a prone position and showing slow signs of recovery, the Avatar estimated about six feet of earth that separated the two of them from each other. Resolving himself to recuperate before the hunter, Aang moved his arms and managed to gradually push his chest from the ground just as he drew his knees inward to support his body weight. With aching joints, the airbender then lifted his tired body to stand on his two feet. From his new vantage, Aang caught a better glimpse of the state of his convalescing foe.

It appeared that the super predator had taken the worst of the impact between both it and Aang as its revealed face, once covered by a mask lost somewhere in the collision, displayed a deep gash near its crown that flowed with green fluorescent blood. Aang watched as the hunter staggeringly gathered its body to rise from the ground. In reaction, the fatigued Avatar formed a weak defensive stance. But the super predator, with its bleeding head hanging low as it supported its weight on its hands and knees, paused it movements to harshly expel a pool of its strange blood, from its mouth, onto the ground. A surprised Aang then observed the weakened hunter lean back and rest on its knees. In doing this, the super predator revealed the primary source of its debilitation.

A large, splintered chunk of jagged bark protruded from a sunken, fresh wound in the Beserker's chest. In both bewilderment and pain, the super predator gazed down at its mortal wound and raised its trembling hands toward the bark, but refrained from physically touching it. The pitiful sight gave Aang some relief as the hunter proved no longer to be a threat. Relaxing his stance, the Avatar gazed at his wounded tormentor with a stoic face, "It didn't have to be like this. You and your comrades brought this onto yourself." He spoke. Upon hearing Aang's unintelligible words, the super predator looked up in the direction of the voice. With its mask gone, the airbender—and his concealed body temperature— appeared as no more than a mere blur in the Beserker's field of vision. It then gave a weak snarl that was followed with another violent hack of blood.

Taking a deep sigh with his nostrils, the Avatar put his gaze down and searched the ground around his feet. Broken splinters of bark, in all shapes and sizes, laid scattered on the earth. One splinter, both long and narrow, caught Aang's eye. Picking it up, the airbender turned his attention back to the super predator. Staring into the dull, crimson, beady eyes of the hunter, Aang decided to give one last remark, "I don't believe in revenge, but I do believe in justice and this…this is justice for the all the lives you took today."

The airbender then quickly spun his body and, at the final turn of his full revolution, he extended his arm carrying the splinter outwards and forcefully swept his arm across. A sharp air blade was then released from the blow and traveled the short distance to the super predator, where, it connected with its neck and cleanly lobbed off its head without so much as a peep from the hunter itself. Relaxing his posture, Aang stared at the slumped decapitated body of the super predator in silence.

"Finally…" He uttered, "…it's over."

The moment of reflection lasted for only a few seconds before an agonizing cry echoed in the air and drew the Avatar's interest. Back on the other end of the camp, Azula struggled to control her loud cries of pain as she attempted to remove the long melee blade of the super predator from her right shoulder. Huffing from the intense discomfort of the lodged object, the princess put a pause to her effort; laying her head back against the tree in order to try and gain some composure. But then, the sudden sound of footsteps approaching from the rear caught Azula's ear and the alarmed princess quickly powered a spark of electric energy in her left hand.

"Whoa, whoa, it's me." The Avatar assuaged as he appeared from behind the tree.

With a sigh of relief, the princess put down her guard, "Avatar..."

Kneeling down next to Azula's injured shoulder, Aang observed her wound. The princess, however, engaged the airbender in dialogue, "So you killed the hunter?" She asked. The question caused the airbender to briefly lock his eyes with Azula's before returning them back to her shoulder, "Yes." He responded bluntly.

The princess then looked away, "Good riddance."

Gazing at the blade, an idea finally came into Aang's mind, "Okay Azula, I'm going to try something. This might sting, but it'll be a lot better than yanking this out with my hand. Are you okay with this?" He asked. The princess gave the Avatar a ruminating stare and then let off a sigh through her nostrils, "Do as you must. But if this brings any more harm, my shoulder will be the least of your worries."

Despite the threatening words, Aang gave a nod and focused back on Azula's shoulder. Hovering his left hand away from the embedded blade, the Avatar closed his eyes. The princess winced as she felt the blade slightly tug within her flesh before, in one abrupt motion, it quickly flew out from her shoulder. With a gasp the princess held her freed shoulder, while Aang levitating the bloody, metallic blade in his hand, opened his eyes and tossed the weapon away with a swipe of his hand.

"How-How did you do that?" Azula sputtered.

Aang smiled, "Let's just say, earthbending has many adaptations. It's a concept that someone taught me back in the Earth Kingdom."

The princess glanced at the airbender and then back at her clutched shoulder, "Interesting." She finally replied.

"Here, let me help you up." Aang implored.

"I can help myself." Azula quickly responded, lifting herself onto her feet shortly afterwards. Aang, giving off a resigned smile, nodded, _"I guess some things never change." _He thought as he stood up himself.

The fires around the camp had already begun to die down and sifting fogs of smoke trailed throughout the vicinity. The night that had brought so much terror and death was now beginning to fade into the approaching light of dawn. Aang and Azula, the two remaining survivors of their group, observed their environment quietly as they stood side-by-side.

"Do you think we'll ever get back home?" Aang asked.

Azula shook her head, "I don't know."

The Avatar looked over to Azula, "You had your chance though. I still don't understand why you came back."

The princess kept her gaze ahead, holding back her answer momentarily, "Do you really want to know why?"

"Well…yeah." Aang replied.

Azula turned her eyes onto Aang, "It's because of this…" Azula suddenly reached her mobile left arm around Aang's neck, clasping the back of his head with her hand. The unexpected act caught Aang off guard, but before he could react he felt Azula's hand jerk his head forward just as she brought her own face closer. The next thing the airbender knew, he found his lips locked with Azula's in a passionate kiss.

* * *

"AHH!" Aang yelled as he quickly sat up straight.

"Aang, you're finally awake!" Katara cried. The young waterbender appeared kneeling next to Aang.

"Bout time!" Sokka added, turning his back around to gaze at the Avatar as he stood nearby, clenching his boomerang, "You couldn't have picked a worse time to go unconscious!"

The confused Aang stared at his friend in surprise, "Unconscious? What? What are you—"

"Hey, if you guys are through with your reunion, we could use a couple more people to defend ourselves if this monster gets through the door!" An anxious Zuko suddenly yelled. Beads of sweat poured down from his mop-top hair as he made his exclamation. Toph stood opposite Zuko with a similar expression of distress on her face, "Yeah, I can only stack so many earth bricks to keep this thing from breaking in!"

Aang placed both of his hands on his bald head in utter bewilderment, "Okay, what's going on here!" He yelled.

Katara gazed at Aang incredulously, "You mean you don't remember anything?"

"Remember what?" He asked.

The waterbender shook her head, "I guess that blow to your head was worse than I thought…" She then placed her hand on Aang's shoulder, "…Listen Aang, something horrible has come into the Fire Nation. I-I don't know how else to describe it except as-as…a monster!"

"Hey I got a couple of descriptions!" Sokka interjected, "How about tall, spiny, black, long-headed, fast, agile and deadly!"

"I think he gets the idea Sokka!" Katara yelled with a chastising tone, "Anyway Aang, we don't know where this thing came from, but we do know that it started with Sozin's Comet."

"She's right." Zuko added quickly, "Apparently, the day the comet passed over the Fire Nation, a small fragment of its body broke off and fell somewhere in the countryside near some villages. The people around the villages were the ones who found the fragment and, according to their report, saw the egg that was embedded within the fragment's body. They believed it to be a dragon egg, so they sent an envoy to give it to the royal court as a gift. I received the egg and kept it in the royal storeroom about three days ago."

"Cause everybody keeps dragon eggs in storerooms, ya know?" Sokka tauntingly remarked.

Ignoring Sokka, Zuko continued, "All I know is that earlier today, not only was the egg was found hatched, but one of the storeroom workers was found dead nearby; his chest completely burst open! Ever since that time, people within the royal palace have been getting killed left and right by some monster that we're confident has some connection to the egg."

Sokka shook his head, "And to make matters worse, this was the day that we came to visit Zuko!"

Toph cleared her throat, "What Sokka means to say, is that we're now stuck fighting this creature in the royal palace. We barely got out alive in our earlier tussle with it and you got caught on the head with a nasty whip from its ugly tail early in the fight."

A loud banging noise resounded from the behind the barrier of earth bricks that Toph had created to cover the entrance to the room.

"I think it's starting to make its way through!" Toph yelled.

Aang shook his head, "So…where exactly are we?"

"One of the palace's panic rooms." Zuko replied.

Another devastating bang resounded from the brick wall, causing some of the barrier to crumble. Sokka glanced at the wall and then back at each of his comrades, "Okay, so this thing is definitely about to come in. Does anybody have a strategy besides taking this thing head on, or do I always have to come up with these things?"

Katara turned her attention to Aang, "Aang, I know this might be much for you since you woke up, but do _you_ have any ideas? You are the Avatar."

Aang curled his lips as he pondered over his thoughts. Finally with a sigh through his nostrils, the Avatar spoke up, "Avatar State?"

"Yeah I think that's a good idea." Sokka replied quickly.

"Oh ho yeah." Toph added.

"I agree. Definitely agree." Zuko responded.

Katara nodded, "Yes, very good idea."

"Okay great, I'm on it. But when I get back…" Aang let out a chuckle, "…I got the_ craziest_ dream to tell you guys about."

THE END


End file.
